Dare to Hope

“There is a risk, there is always a risk, but hope is worth the risk.”

Loren Thornburg

Risk is a scary thing because it means there is a chance for injury or loss. We become face to face with exposure to pain and hurt which are things we try to avoid at all cost. Hope is a risk. It is a risk to believe that what you want or desire can actually come true and that things will turn out for the best. Often it seems easier not to hope or to have high expectations. If we keep them low we also keep from being let down. The problem in doing this is that we miss out on much. We miss out on the life in hoping. For while there may be loss if things don’t work out as we hoped, we may get hurt, there may be pain, yet the greater loss is not to have hope. It is in hoping, in believing that we find life!! And let us not forget that the other side of risk is that there is a chance for great reward, great joy, and great life!! There is a chance that our desires will come true. Take the chance...dare to hope.

“The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words...Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the Lord never ends!”

Lamentations 3:19-22 NLT

Now if anyone saw reason to stop hoping it was Jeremiah. After destruction of Jerusalem and it’s people that he tried to warn for years of this fate if they did not repent Jeremiah laments among the ruins of the city through the book of Lamentations. Yet, even after all that he experienced and all that he saw, one destruction after another, he still dared to hope. I can’t help but be challenged to have the same Hope as Jeremiah in the places in my life that look like ruins. His kind of hope was not in things of this world but in the one true LORD whose unfailing love never ends. We have a guarantee that God’s love never fails and never ends, but as Jeremiah and you and I can attest to that doesn’t mean there won’t be ruins in our lives. So the risk remains...to dare to hope in the midst of things that don’t look hopeful. We can because the promise remains...His Love will never end. We can because that promise means that even when it looks bad God’s love is at work accomplishing all of its purposes beyond what we see. So, let us dare to hope by remembering we have a God who loves and can’t stop loving no matter what!!