
Hope is a great word. It is a short 4 letter word, begins with a softer, often silent consonant (h) and ends with a stronger and more pronounced sound (p). It's a word that evokes a feeling of longing and desire but also a sound that promises a sense of expectation and completion.
It also is a word that is both noun and verb. Something you have, and also something you do. Something given to you, but also something you act upon. Again, it's a beautiful word of what is here and what is yet to come.
The concept of hope is also one that goes deep into the multi-layered experience of our human life. Hope, a positive word certainly, is by definition a word that comes out of a place of need. In other words, you hope only because you are in need. You hope because you don't have what you want yet. You want hope in your life because you've been in a state of hopelessness. It is preciously out of loss and suffering, which we wish not, that hope is born, what we long for.
As I'm currently studying the book of Micah for our Sunday messages, I've come to chapter 4 which consists of the great message of hope for the people of Israel. But, chapter 4 comes only after chapters 1-3 which are full of human sin, sufferings and sorrows. It is only when chapter 4 is understood in the context of the previous 3 chapters that the beautiful, multi-layered sense of hope is appreciated and deeply received.
Join me in our study of Micah 4 this week. And may we all be filled with God's promise of hope which does not look past the human reality of suffering but redeems it a deeply transformative way only God can do.
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