DEVOTIONAL Header2023

Hope-Hopping

April 10, 2024
04092024WEEKLYDEVO

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure…” (Hebrews 6:19, NIV).

 

We reviewed his CT in our multidisciplinary conference after treating his cancer with radioembolization.

 

I brought him good news: “Right now, I’m optimistic. There’s no evidence of cancer on your scan.”

 

He replied, “Optimist nothing, Doc. God said, ‘It is finished,’ and that’s all I need. That’s where my hope lies.”

 

There are so many places our hopes can lie. And if we reach them, there is always another to achieve.

 

Patients often hope their cancer will be cured, or that they will live until their children are married, or just that the pain will go away. All of these are legitimate hopes. They are deep and concrete and important to seek. My job in healthcare is to help them achieve these hopes. Everyone has islands of hope they wish to reach, whether it be jobs, or relationships, or finances, or children, or relief of distress for those we love. All of us as followers of Christ should be vessels on the dangerous sea of life to carry our patients, friends and loved ones to the islands where their hopes can be realized.

But these hopes, vital as they are, are but islands in a sea where people are destined to drown unless they reach the Solid Ground that extends forever.

 

Omar Khayyam put it this way: “The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon Turns Ashes–or it prospers; and anon, Like Snow upon the Desert’s dusty Face, Lighting a little Hour or two–is gone.”

C.S. Lewis knew the difference of hope-hopping for brief fulfillment and landing where we belong: “We are never safe, but we have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy. It is not hard to see why. The security we crave would teach us to rest our hearts in this world…Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

 

We have only one home. It’s wherever the Father is, both this side and the other side of glory. We know this truth for ourselves, but do we live it for those who depend on us to help them reach their earthly hopes? Can we work with God to move them from hope-hopping to placing their feet on solid ground?

 

I wish that everyone I care for could say, “It is finished” (John 19:30), as did my patient, and walk with the One who completed it all. What will I let God do through me this week to get them there?

 

Dear Father,

Let me land with you. Let those for who I care land with you.

Amen

Weekly Devotions

Wrong

“If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have ...
Weekly Devotions

V2 Christianity

“…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called ...
Weekly Devotions

The Great Invasion

“When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men to kill all the children in Bethlehem ...
Weekly Devotions

An Autumn Cold

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send. And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. ...
Weekly Devotions

Chickens Waiting

“One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, ‘Anyone who comes to me but refuses to ...
Weekly Devotions

God Listens

“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for ...
Weekly Devotions

Durres

“Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me ...
Weekly Devotions

Bookend Stories

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor heigh, nor depth, nor ...