What happens when you lose your hope? What happens when the investment you’ve made on your future comes back…a null?
Elpis is the greek word for Hope, meaning: a looking forward to in confident expectation. The word hope appears 167 times throughout the Bible. The breakdown is virtually balanced, with the Old Testament having 83 mentions and the New Testament holding 84.
From first glance, it would appear that someone wants to make a point. If I wanted you to remember something, I would definitely repeat a few times. 83, probably not, but at least more than once.
When I think of lost hope so many things come to mind. I think of the dreams I’ve had through out my life that have changed. Dreams of being a firefighter, police man, and architect. I even wanted to be the guy that goes around and waters people’s yards.
The dream that probably intrigued me the most was when I wanted to be an airplane pilot. This is the dream that I probably put the most energy into as a child. I had the flight simulator programs on my computer and even went out and bought a joystick. At the time I didn’t have a job, but I was saving up my allowance to get a real yoke and pedal set up. I wanted to make my dream as real as possible.
As time went on and I grew up, my dreams changed. Now my joystick sits on a shelf collecting dust, and the flight simulator hasn’t been opened in years. The dream appears to be dead.
Just because a dream dies doesn’t mean that it is never to be brought up again. Every year the flowers in our front garden spring up and then die off a few months later. But they are not gone forever. They come back the following spring, except they are joined by a few friends and their appearance is stronger and brighter this time.
Sometimes the dreams that we have are great dreams, but the timing may be wrong. When I was 8 years old, I remember setting up a make-shift podium and just reading the bible to my siblings. I thought that was the best game we played! I wanted to be a pastor. I loved watching our pastor at church. But that desire died for a moment. Here I am 20 years old and that desire/dream has come back. This time with more knowledge of the logistics. This time the dream is more realistic than when I was 8.
Sometimes dream have to be put on hold for a moment, at least until you can acquire more resources.
A dream is only dead when you lose hope. And what was Hope again? A looking forward to in confident expectation? Yes, I think that’s what it was.
ἐλπίς • elpis • hope
Psalm 71:14-15 “But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day…”