HOPE.

Happy Easter Sunday!

I hope you are all doing well.What amazing weather we’re having! It’s definitely helping me get through the days staying at home. I've had to give myself a bit more structure to get through each day, to help me be a little more productive and get things ticked off my list. But I'm also enjoying taking things a little slower and facing each day as it comes. If I don’t get everything done, then there's always tomorrow!

Something that was on my heart before the coronavirus threw everything upside down was hope, and what that actually means for us living here and now. It seems that now we’re living in this uncertain world, it’s more important than ever to consider our understanding of hope, particularly at Easter. As I've mentioned before, I'm listening to Tim Mackie's podcast series My Strange Bible. The episode called ”Resurrection as a Way of Life Part 2: Living Hope” really inspired me to write this blog post, again, mainly to order my own thoughts! I’d also really encourage you to read 1 Peter 1 alongside this post, it’s been really inspiring me at the moment, as you’ll see when you read on!

I really hope it's useful to you too, leave a comment below or on my Instagram @emilyjoyhamilton_  and let me know what you think!

H   O P   E

Hope gives people means of survival. Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl took interest in people who had also survived concentration camps and what it was that helped them to get through this horrific experience. Frankl discovered that the only people who could survive this indescribable pain were those that had hope. Hope that couldn't be taken away by another person.  For bakers, it was the dream of baking a loaf of bread again. For musicians, playing their instruments in a concert hall. It was the hope of a life with meaning and a purpose that helped people get through this incredible trauma. These were hopes that couldn't be touched by their current circumstances.

We, too, are desperate to find purpose in the everyday so our lives have meaning. I often find myself trying to organise my life events so they fit into some sort of story, so they have sort of real purpose. We might have a specific plan for our lives, things that we look forward to and goals to aim for. These things give us hope.

 For Christians, we have our hope in Jesus and not in earthly things. Why? Because through Jesus' suffering and empty tomb we are given hope. The inheritance we are given through Jesus dying for our sins will not perish, or spoil, or fade. It is unchangeable and secure in heaven. (1 Peter 1:4) This hope transcends all circumstances, NOTHING in our lives is as certain as the hope we have in Jesus' resurrection and what that has given  us. No horrible things that touch our lives on this earth can touch the gift that is given to us freely by Jesus. He surrounded himself in human condition and took all the suffering and pain and consequences of sin and he let it destroy him, so that we can be saved, because he loves us. God is SO good.

In suffering and grief a disciple of Jesus is joyful:

"And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy" (1 Peter 1:8).

A fixed hope changes the way we deal with pain and suffering on earth. Being a Christian doesn't mean that we are exempt from grief and pain. We know that Jesus suffered as we do, it’s mentioned multiple times in the Bible that Jesus wept: at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:33-36), over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41-44) and in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before his death  (Hebrews 5:7). Having joy through suffering doesn’t mean a denial of negativity. We have to acknowledge our suffering and take on a posture of hope. We need to recognise that our present circumstances of suffering don’t determine the meaning of our lives. This suffering cannot rob us of the joy we have in Jesus, it cannot rob us of our untouchable hope.

The pain we experience through suffering purifies us. It strips us of earthly things, of the things we think give our lives meaning. But it also removes false hope from our lives and helps us to focus on what’s really important. We have attached the meaning of our lives’ to exactly what we lose through suffering: earthly things. We have put our hope in things that can be broken and will wither, and then we find we cannot live without them. These earthly hopes may not be bad things! Such as our family, our friends or our careers. However, if we have our whole identity placed in these things and they are taken away from us, as earthly things so easily can be, then who are we really? Where is our identity?  Instead we can have hope in the ONE thing that gives our life true meaning and purpose, and is kept and unchanged for eternity. I believe Jesus is certain. His life is offered in our place so that we can have an identity in him.

“He would become what we are so that we could become who he is” Tim Mackie.

I love this! How amazing that he would do something so incredible so that we don’t have to suffer. He suffered in our place. Jesus’ tomb became my tomb and his body my hope. All because he loves us SO much. Mackie says that if we can internalise this, then pain and suffering becomes a paradoxical gift, a tragedy to weep over and grieve but one that can also show us the real meaning in our lives.

I pray that through this time of absolute tragedy in our world, you will be able to recognise what Jesus has given to you so freely. Even though many of us are grieving right now, I pray that we can have a living and untouchable hope in what Jesus has given us through his death and resurrection. I pray that in this season you will find joy in suffering, by the gift we are given through Jesus’ resurrection and that you will see glimpses of this incredible gift every day.

Happy Easter!

Emily xx

A link to the Podcast: 

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS96b3ZQQ0dMSQ&episode=MjZiMzc0NTUtMDVhOC00MjY1LWI3MTgtZGRiOWVlZDNjMjA2&hl=en-GB&ved=2ahUKEwihwLeIt-DoAhWBZMAKHQe-AKYQjrkEegQIBxAE&ep=6

Thankyou to my sister Laura for helping me to edit this post!