Yet I Dare To Hope

Today is one of the most important days in the year: my birthday.

 

Every single year I have hoped for snow on my birthday and every single year I have been disappointed.  There is often snow in other places in the country, or snow in the weeks just after my birthday, but I have yet to enjoy snow on my actual birthday.

 

However, despite the fact that I have yet to enjoy snow on my birthday, despite the years of disappointment, every single year I still hope that it might just snow.  I eagerly watch the weather forecasts, I wake up during the night before my birthday just to check outside.  Even now, with a few hours left of my birthday, I think it might just snow.  There's still a chance.

 

Despite the disappointment, I still dare to hope.

 

And it's a tiny, pale, weak reflection of what the writer of Lamentations described in the Bible.  The book of Lamentations, as the name suggests, is a book of mourning at the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem.

 

And yet, in the very middle of the book, there is a tiny seed of hope.  A moment where, despite the dire circumstances, the writer remembers God's goodness.  And it gives him cause to hope.

 

      "The thought of my suffering and homelessness
      is bitter beyond words.

      I will never forget this awful time,
      as I grieve over my loss.
      Yet I still dare to hope
      when I remember this:

      The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
      His mercies never cease.
      Great is his faithfulness;
      his mercies begin afresh each morning.
      I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
      therefore, I will hope in him!”

      The Lord is good to those who depend on him,
      to those who search for him.
      So it is good to wait quietly
      for salvation from the Lord."

 

     [Lamentations 3:19-26 NLT, emphasis mine]

 

 

Yet I still dare to hope.

 

Despite difficult circumstances, despite repeated disappointments, despite broken dreams, still I dare to hope when I remember who it is that I trust. 

 

We can continue to hope, because we can put our hope and trust in a faithful, loving, merciful God.

 

And as for the snow, there's always next year.

 

 

 

Fresh Start

This afternoon, I went to watch the new Batman film. 

I really enjoyed it and there were lots of things that stood out for me.  However, to avoid ruining any of the twists if you have yet to see it, I will keep my comments short and spoiler-free.

One of the main things that I found really significant was how one of the characters is completely driven and motivated by a desire for a fresh start and a new identity.  And she will do anything to achieve this.

She is so desperate to wipe away the trace of her past and who she was, that she will stop at nothing until she has got what she wants.

Her desire for a fresh start and to be able to wipe the slate clean is one that we can all empathise with.  We have all done or said or been things with which we're not especially proud.  We all have, as Lord Grantham says in 'Downton Abbey' "chapters we'd rather keep unpublished."

And the good news is that when we put our trust and our hope in Jesus, we are given a fresh start.  We are made new:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"

[2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV]

Whilst we receive a brand new life the moment we turn to God, we are always in need of another fresh start and another fresh start and another fresh start.

And with Jesus, if we ask, there will always be a new beginning, a chance to wipe the slate clean and to start over:

          "Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
          for his compassions never fail. 
          They are new every morning."

          [Lamentations 3:23 NIV emphasis mine]

I love this prayer of David for a fresh start and new life -

         "God, make a fresh start in me,
         shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life."
         [Psalm 51:10 MSG]

We all long for a fresh start, but we don't have to pursue it with all that we have.  We simply have to ask.