mandy inchaustegui

I've been thinking a lot about hope lately. I’m hopeful for a lot of things right now and I get frustrated when that hope is differed. My question in my honest moments has been what’s the purpose of hope if it just sets me up for disappointment? Wouldn’t it be better to just not hope at all? Isn’t it easier to just take reality as it comes, playing it cool and with a tough heart?

Maybe. But there’s something in me that believes that life is supposed to be more than that.

I think there's a difference between I’ve been thinking about wanting something really bad and hope. I’m pretty sure I regularly use the words “want” and “hope” as one in the same. So, what’s the difference?

It’s totally good to want things. I want to go on a vacation. I want In & Out for dinner. On a more serious note, I really want to have another kid. I want to have an incredible and intimate relationship with my husband. I want to live a meaningful life. I want to become a better person.

All good things to want.

Hope makes those wants different. There’s an acknowledgment in using the word “hope” of an aspect of what I want that is out of my control. I think this is why the Scriptures tell us exactly where to put our hope.

I love the phrase in Lamentations 3, “dare to hope.” True hope takes courage. It takes risk. Hope doesn’t make practical sense because it’s often in areas that we can’t control. Daring to hope says that I believe that God is God. I believe that I don’t have the power to control everything and that I need him to even focus my desire the right way. True hope takes the focus off of me and puts it back on the Creator of the universe. In him, I can hope. And rest. And have peace.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t still want certain things and that I don’t continue to be proactive. We really want another kid. I’m glad the proactive part in that is pretty fun and enjoyable. However, there’s a lot going into it that is beyond my control.

My hope isn’t in whether or not having a baby actually happens. I know God is capable of making it happen and I’m definitely communicating with him how I feel and what are the desires of my heart.

But even if it doesn’t happen the way I want it to, I will still dare to hope in him, living a life of courage and risk in everything, knowing that he is God.