Hope Containers

Sometimes dreams fall apart.


Sometimes our very favorite dreams burst at the seams and spill our plans onto the floor.
Making a humiliating mess.


Sometimes our dreams break under the pressure and intense heat of reality and our hope leaks out.
Drains to empty.
Only a puddle remains of what once delighted.


My favorite mug gave way last week and split open
-cracked right down the side-
as I poured boiling water over the tea bag.
Tea leaked out onto the stove. Onto the floor.
The cup drained to empty.
Sounded hollow.


I looked at the puddle- the mess- and I looked at the crack down the side.
I thought of my life and my dreams,
and the uncertainties that even now are staring me in the face,
And I thought, Hmm. This seems only fitting.


I leak.


Hope drains.


Where does hope go when dreams shatter?

Where does hope go when its container busts?

Tea on the floor in a puddle,

and slowly...slowly... I am beginning to realize...

Dreams. What are they?

What are dreams anyway? Are they anything more than vapors? Intense desires? Figments of imaginations?

Are dreams strong? Do they last? Are dreams really capable of supporting the weight and the volume of hope?

Were dreams really meant to be hope containers?

There are hopes.... and then there’s hope.

There are things we hoped to do, hoped  to be, hoped to see happen-

things we planned on, made plans for, centered plans around-

Things we established dreams upon....
These are hopes.

And then there’s hope.
What keeps us breathing,
What keeps us alive,
What makes life worth living.

Hopes can die and I can be wounded, but I can go on and live.
HOPE dies, and I find no purpose in life without it.


Hope Containers determine life.


Thoughts swirl in my mind. I am captivated by that crack in my mug and the resemblance it holds to my dreams.
Breaking.


“You are God my Savior...” I read the psalm of another’s pulsing, breaking heart.
“...and my hope is in You all day long.”


My hope is in You.


My hope.


In You.


Dreams give way. They just do.
If hope has been in the dream, when it breaks, the hope leaks out to the floor.
Leaves the dreamer empty.
Creates a mess.
Evaporates.


Maybe dreams were never meant to be hope containers.

“My hope is in You.”


Maybe... just maybe... (my thoughts swirl).


My broken mug won’t hold tea ever again.


Maybe I have been wrong all this time. Maybe I am suddenly seeing things more clearly than ever before.
Looking through the crack.


(Somehow brokenness makes way for clarity.)


Jesus Christ.
He never changes. Never gives way. He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.”
The Solid Rock.
Quite capable of supporting the weight and the volume of hope.

“His love endures forever.”


Not only is He quite capable of containing hope securely-
Not only is He strong enough; not only that-

He is so entirely full of love-
(The epitome of love... Love Embodied)
That we can know that He holds our hope precious. Holds it close.
Won’t bust open and let our hope drain.
Too much love for that.


Dreams can crack and shatter. Hopes can be destroyed.
The very foundations of our worlds can quake and crumble and throw us so off course that we can’t tell up from down. And people can hurt us.
People can hurt and disappoint us, fail us, forget us, turn and betray us, frustrate us, and crush us.
Happenings of life can pierce our hearts right to the deepest most sensitive part
And then turn
Twisting the dagger- deeper, deeper...
Weakening, dizzying, excruciating, blinding pain.
Circumstances can crush, bruise, break, wound;
Scare us right out of our skin-
Leave us confused and bleeding.


All these things and more can happen. Have happened. Will happen.
Because we live in a broken, beat-up, crazy world.


But if my HOPE is in Him

-In Him-

If He holds it, nurtures it, contains it safely-
Then even when everything falls… and my heart breaks... and my dreams fail me... and hopes die...
I won’t lose Hope. It will still be there. Unharmed. Unshaken. Immovable.


Because of the unchangeableness of who He is.
Hope remains.

I could choose to place my hope in dreams,
In people,
In places,
In things,
In feelings,
In experiences,
In words,
In songs,
In beliefs,
In ideas- preconceived or well-rounded, firmly established.
I could choose to place my hope in any of these containers, but when they give way
(and they will give way; all containers in this broken, beat-up world eventually do)-
When they give way hope will leak out and leave me....


...Hopeless.


And I can’t live without hope.
I can’t go on breathing as a hopeless person.

A broken mug, now completely useless for containing liquid, reminds me of hope containers.

Makes me look into my heart and ask the question:

Where is my hope?

Is my hope in Him? Is He my Hope Container?

Inasmuch as HE is my Hope Container, I can say with all confidence
“As for me, I will ALWAYS have hope; I will praise You more and more.” (Psalm 71:14 NIV, emphasis added).


Even when dreams fall apart; crumble; break my heart...
Even when I can’t understand; can’t tell up from down; don’t know what to do....
Even when my heart bleeds and throbs in pain; when I leak; when tears seep out and slide down into my lap right alongside my dreams and hopes and plans...
Even when my heart goes numb; pain no longer draws a response; the world seems cruel, silent, indifferent...
Even THEN.
Even THERE.
WHEREVER I may be-
If my hope is in Him, Him alone- no other container- I will always have hope.


Always.


And the funny, beautiful thing is,
Even that broken “useless” mug now has a new purpose-

It arrests my eyes, takes my thoughts captive, reminds me to ask my heart,
Were is my hope today?



And I think about hope containers. 

“May the God of HOPE fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him,

so that you may OVERFLOW with HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 15:13