This is going to be a crazy week for me.  I hope you don’t mind repondering this series from last year.  Somehow, I think it’s still appropriate.

This week we focus on Hope, because…

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life (Proverbs 13:12).

There’s a whole lot of sick hearts out there.

We hope, we hunger, we long for something, and it tears at us. We feel a hole in our hearts, and we yearn for that which will fill it. And then, after weeks, months, years of patience, we obtain our hope, and all is bliss.

Except when we don’t.

And it isn’t.

Then what?

I’m going to open the week with a simple question:  What do you hope for?

I said simple; I never said easy.

Do us both a favor; don’t tell me—or God, or yourself, for that matter—what you think we want to hear.  Because, “I hope for Christ’s return, when I will be glorified with him and made complete in him,” sounds incredibly spiritual, and is a gold star answer in Sunday School, and is probably even true.

But it’s not all, is it?

Dump out your heart this morning.  Sift through all the bits and bobs.  What do you find yourself yearning for, aching for, hoping for?

What is missing?

Just something to ponder as you head into your week.

Happy Monday, Beloved.