The Audacity of Hope

Life hurts, guys.
Hearts get broken over and over again.
Sometimes the darkness seems stronger than the light.
Sometimes it feels like we're fighting a battle that's already been lost.
Because sometimes hope is dangerous.

Personally, books and movies with sad endings always throw me for a loop, to the point where I can't even react. Friends have called me heartless because I didn't cry in the Lion King or the Notebook (Although I did cry in Les Mis, that counts for something, right?). It's not that it didn't upset me or that I didn't care, but I had such a strong hope and belief that everything would turn out alright in the end that I couldn't immediately come to grips with the fact that it wasn't a "happily ever after". I was certain that Sherlock wasn't dead at the end of "The Reichenbach Fall", so I kept telling John to just wait till Season 3 and it'd be okay! (For some reason characters don't listen to me. Hm.) In the Death Cure by James Dashner, I had so convinced myself that he wouldn't kill off my favorite character that I was like "Wait. No, that can't be right!" and re-read the passage several times.

Thing is, this happens just as much in real life:
"They'll get better. I mean, they have to, right?"
"He won't lose his job. He's been there too long."
"They must have misunderstood. She wouldn't have said that." 

We pray for the happy endings, but sometimes they don't come.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't hope.

Yeah, bad stuff happens. We may know why in our time on this earth. We may not. Regardless, our God is still good. Without him, there would be no happy endings. And even when things don't go as planned, we need to remember that God likes happy endings. Read the end of Revelation and you'll see that He's planned the greatest happy ending in the history of ever. You see, our God wins! We who have accepted Him get to live with and worship and enjoy him forever, without sin, pain, or the interference of the Devil. 

"And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." -Romans 5:5 (NLT)

This is the audacity of hope. I hope in a living, returning Christ though I may not see the happy endings now. I hope, knowing that this specific thing may not turn out the way I want, but also knowing that it is all part of His good, sovereign plan. I hope in what I cannot see but know is real.

So I will hope even when it hurts.
Because our God wins.
Because He's coming back.
Because He will never abandon me.
Because He loves me.