Hope Springs Eternal

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; 
Be still, and know that I am God;"
Psalms 62:5a and 46:10a

In his Essay on Man, Alexander Pope says that, "Hope springs eternal." It's a nice, oft quoted sentiment but do we really believe it? We have hopeful anticipation when the indicator line is a plus sign, when a nervous groom-to-be pops open the lid on the ring box, when the eager college graduate has his first job interview but do we live in hope? Hopeful anticiaption differs from hope for it is based on circumstances. 

Like the popular spring toy hopeful anticipation needs a catalyst to be put in action. It depends on circumstance. Now I know the happy little spring joyfully descends stairs but hopeful anticiapation is not a downer. Nervewracking moments are present to be sure but there's still hope--there's still joy. Then the spring hits the bottom of the stairs with a birth, a giggly yes, a handshake from the new boss and hopeful anticiaption is over. Or rather it's just sitting there waiting for a new catalyst, a new circumstance.

Sadly we treat hope just like hopeful anticiapation but this time when the spring hits bottom we misinterpret its meaning and think hope is gone. But hope is not gone. It is just still and in that stillness we can find God. Those who put their hope in Him need not wait anxiously for the next catalyst to find joy. We can let ourselves be still, knowing God is with us in all things. He's there when life is making a whooshing sound on the stairs and when it lands with a boinging ker-plunk. 

Hope is not a temporary event. It is not dependent on circumstance. Hope simply is. And it is found in God. 

In God there is eternal hope springing forth from His infinate Mercies which are new every morning.