31 days of Hope - Day 10

Hope is not the conviction

that something will turn out well,

but the certainty that something makes sense

regardless of how it turns out.

Vaclav Havel

Perhaps that has been my problem this year.  I wanted the conviction that all would be well.  I wanted the guarantee.  I wanted to know that, no matter what I went through, it would all be right in the end.  I wanted it all the make sense to me and I wanted all the bad feelings that the adversity to just go away. 
I am finally coming to understand that things don't have to turn out the way I want them too in order for me to have hope.  I am coming to believe that hope is the ability to see that God is in control, and that no matter what happens, I will get through it and it will become a strength to me.  In other words, I need to be able to let go in order to have hope.  I need to be willing to turn it all over to Him and to know that He will take care of it.  Even if it is not quite the way that I would choose to see it done. 
I am learning that the word hope can easily be misunderstood.  In our society today, it carries with it a hint of uncertainty.  We "hope" good things will happen.  But in the scriptures, we get a clearer meaning of the word hope.  It is sure, unwavering and firm.  The Apostle Paul taught,

“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

The principle of hope can sustain us in our everyday lives.  Hope can help us to bear our burdens and to turn our eyes toward God.  Hope can remind of who we are and just who is really in charge.  Hope can change our lives if we will just let it in.