A long time in the ark

Hope is one of those things that ebbs and flows for me. Depending on what I’m hoping for, my hope can be hopeful or doubtful. There’s no timeline with hope. Sometimes we hope for things that take decades to come to pass. There may be things that I will hope for my entire life that I won’t see realized. I tend to be much more hopeful for others in what they are hoping for, than I am for my own hopes. I suppose that’s where discouragement creeps in and tries to steal my hope (something I must battle against).

Hope is deep and stored in the depths of our hearts, contrary to desires and wishes which are more temporal. I wish to be more organized for 2016, maybe redo our laundry room. I desire to eat healthier and be more physically fit. I want to complete 50 miles on my bike and then 100. But my hopes, are not wishes, wants or desires. They go deeper. My hope is to see the restoration of marriages and families. My hope is that husbands and wives come to understand who they were created to be, what their true identities and roles are as men and woman created by God, made for a unique purpose, one that only they can fulfill. My hope is to see revival in churches and to watch the Holy Spirit ignite His people with a burning zeal that consumes them. My hope is that hearts everywhere would experience the healing touch of Jesus in such a profound way that all the scrapes, cuts and deep wounds of their heart would be mended and their heart restored to wholeness. Those are my hopes and I pray I might see portions of them realized in my lifetime. And I hope I stay hopeful and that I do not succumb to discouragement when change doesn’t seem apparent.

How does one stay hopeful when nothing seems to be changing or the changes are so incrementally minuscule that it’s hard to note any advancement? Faith! Faith like Noah. “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (Genesis 6:1). Noah had great faith which is what gave him tremendous hope. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Noah endured 40 days of rain closed up in the ark, but that was nothing compared to the total time he spent there. Scholars estimate that he spent just over one year in the ark. That’s how long it took for the waters to recede and for the land to emerge. Makes the 40 days in the boat look like a walk in the park. So 365 plus days living in an ark, with the same vista all around – water and more water as far as the eye could see. No change in the scenery at all.

“For we live by faith not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7), Paul reminds us. If Noah had depended on his sight his hope would have become hopeless, for there were no apparent changes in his line of vision for an entire year. Although a year may not seem that long, I venture to guess that a year in a boat, is really, really long.  Truthfully, I want signs to satisfy my sight, in order to feed my hope, for my faith is weak and lacking. And once again Paul says, “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24-25). Noah waited and waited, and hoped in what he could not see. He walked faithfully with God, so scripture says, and Noah was patient until the day God said, “Come out of the ark…” May we live by the kind of faith Noah had, remaining always hopeful, until the Lord shows us what lies outside of the ark.

 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer (Romans 12:12)