i'm finishing up some final stuff for school and listening to some good music. a lyric just struck me from the song "give up the war" by starflyer 59. the song talks about how the singer (jason martin) has this desire to "be things" and yet always seems to get discouraged by life's circumstances.
"it's simply that i am still afraid, i want to give up the war."
martin talks about some of the biblical characters who never gave up the war, specifically paul. he says he wants to be like paul, he was simply not afraid and never gave up the war. the resolution of the song, though, is nothing extraordinary or mind-blowing... martin just continues to sing "i want to be things, always living, pressing on"
i think there's value in that. our culture thrives on quick fixes and incredible resolutions that tie everything up and make everyone happy at the end of the show or movie. further, it seems that we pursue that and desire that in our everyday lives. i mean, heck, look at the self-help industry! what if that wasn't the right way to live, though? in fact, what if that was the exact opposite of what our response to life should be?
i think hope exists in that place where one has nothing left to do but "press on." otherwise, why would someone choose to continue? i find no hope in a quick fix, nor in a tidy resolution. what if hope existed in difficult situations??? and not that hope that says "oh well, it will get better i promise." no... it's a hope that says "yeah this sucks, but God never said it would be any other way." what if that hope could fuel you in the hard times? it's a hope that causes you to press on. why? because its what we're supposed to do.
"i want to be things, always living, pressing on"
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5 comments:
hope.
sigh.
question?
kinda going back to what steve said wednesday.
if sin didnt happen.
and their was no shame or guilt.
and this world was really how God intended it to be.
would hope even exist???
would we need hope???
...
we would still need hope as created beings, however, that hope would be consistently fulfilled at all times due to our closeness to the righteousness of God. good question.
we always need hope and we cannot live without it.
idk where to comment about the name of your blog...
Extraordinary Hope...
but everytime i read that i get a big smile across my face...
just reading it gives me hope...
couldnt tell you why...
it just does...
=)
Hope is an amazing thing. We have hope in a hopeless world. But I think it goes beyond hope that everything is going to have a happy ending, or any kind of resolution at all. Sometimes the only hope that we have is that we serve an awesome God. Even when he doesn't answer our prayers, and bad things just continue to happen. Our hope is found in the peace that God offers. That undescribable peace that things may never be okay... but that's okay.
Our hope isn't found in this world, but we bring it to this world. Our hope is in Christ alone. Not that he will make it all better, but just that he is. It truly is extrodanary.
very very good. i definitely agree.
that's one of the most difficult parts of our hope, it is, much like anything in our faith, 100% counter to everything we have been taught by the world our entire lives. logic and reason state that hope can only be placed in things seen for we have no guarantee that anything else even exists. our hope, though, is completely in the unseen. i find comfort in that. it would be really easy to hope for a simple solution or for some seen outcome to actually come true. our hope, though, is so strong that we don't require that fulfillment to fuel it.
it just... is.
that's what is so extraordinary about it. it just is.
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