Hopes and Prayers

There are times when hope is a precarious thing. It balances on a precipice between doubt and faith. The slightest breeze can upset the balance.



One of the hardest things is that sometimes people equate your hope to some kind of yardstick of your faith. If you have hope, then you have faith, and the more you hope, then that's an expression of your faith expanding.



But it doesn't work like that. I think sometimes people who believe that really haven't gone through times of trial and depravation. It grieves me to see people suffer for extended periods of time and for others to then knock 'em down a little more by somehow expressing that their faith isn't quite adequate if they don't hope enough.



Prayer can be the same way. In faith and hope we turn to our Lord with whispered or spoken pleas, words that express the depths of our hearts' desires. Desires for peace and contentment as well as possibly earthly ease in our everyday struggles. When those struggles remain, when we continually fight the battles of survival (and that may be different things for different folks) and there isn't relief, then there are some people who will tell you that you aren't praying adequately, or that you have a secret sin in your life and you're being punished for it. These responses grieve me as they are not Biblical and again, knock down those who have been praying in earnest hope of relief and a change in circumstances.



I guess, I'm trying to say that I wish we could all remember to be kind to one another. To walk beside each other in love and companionship and to express ourselves a little more carefully with each other.