In Alexander Pope's Essay On Man he wrote that "Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always to be, blest..." I have heard that saying hundreds of times in my life but never knew where it came from or why it was coined. I just knew it meant baseball season was here and as a Cubs fan, that phrase is the only thing we have most seasons. It also means that April is upon us...Easter, Bluebonnetts in the Texas Hill Country, The Masters (congrats Phil...just in case you read), enough oak pollen to choke an elephant, and another viewing of "Field of Dreams" for me. You can argue all you want, but it is the single greatest baseball movie ever made! Now that that is settled:
Faith is defined in Hebrews (11:1) by "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" or as The Message phrases it: "is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we cannot see." From here I am going to say that hope is what makes life worth living. The word springs refers to water coming from the ground continuously and is used often in the Bible. Jesus will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life as described to the woman at the well in John 4.
So the phrase "hope springs eternal" means that whatever makes life worth living should be something that lasts forever or at least focuses on eternity...living in the Kingdom now...praying "Thy Kingdom Come" and meaning it. Too often we put our hope and prayers in everything else and everything else eventually lets us down, breaks our heart, steals our joy, causes our pain, uses us, takes advantage of us, spits us out, kicks us while we're down, turns their back, mocks us, and can eventually kill our spirit...but only if we let it. Look again at the things "everything else we hope in" does: look familiar. That's because it all happened in the story that gives us something to hope for in this life. Hope does spring eternal. It was springing eternal on the cross and it springs eternal today...if we let it.
Why choose worry and frustration when things don't go your way? Why choose depression when life hurts? Why choose a frown on a rainy day? Why choose anything but the hope we have in Christ? Our faces say it all. Our eyes tell the story. Our lives set the tone.
"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us - set us right with Him, make us fit for Him - we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that He has already thrown open His door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand - out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy (hope) such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary - we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit" (Romans 5:1-5 The Message)!
Those words shoot adrenaline into my soul! Where are you hoping you might be standing as God sings "well done" over you? This time of uncertainty in my life has developed character I didn't know I had and the length of my transition is giving me that passionate patience (perseverance) Paul talks about in verse 4. Standing around and wondering "why me" is no way to go through life, but living in alert expectancy (hope that springs eternal) for what God has next is what we're called to.
Now back to my original argument about "Field of Dreams" being the greatest baseball movie of all time. Watch the movie, read Romans 5:1-5, and realize that the greatest baseball of movie of all time had nothing at all to do with baseball...it's a story about a man and his relationship with his father. He acted on a hope, a vision, and actually a voice in this case, but in the end also realized that the hopes he thought he had meant nothing...it all came down to "Dad, do you want to have a catch" and restoring his relationship with dad. So again I ask why choose anything but the hope we have in Christ? If you are choosing worry and frustration or placing hope in something else just ask: "Dad, do you want to have a catch" and restore your relationship with the ONE that can bring hope that springs eternal...and that's what Smithson says!
