Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. (Proverbs 19:21 ESV)
Hope
I took a cross-country overnight bus trip in Australia in 1990. I had not yet absorbed a sense of Aussie geography, and had barely a sense of how many hours the trip would take.
To make it worse, the bus driver was not interested in answering the no-doubt annoying questions of this overconfident but under-knowledged Yank. Eventually he asked me to move farther back in the bus.
But I blame him. I was seeking hope. While I knew the destination, Sydney, I did not know anything along the way. I was asking for information because I wanted hope.
I could have just closed my eyes and hoped internally. But internal guessing does not lead to hope. I could have remembered past glimpses of maps of Australia’s mountain ranges. But memory does not lead to hope. I could have reasoned the pathway, using geometry, algebra, and logic. But reason does not lead to hope.
Hope usually comes FROM someone. In my case, I wanted it to be the bus driver.
Our God understands that. And so He gives us hope by giving us His Word. We can read His purposes, know His lovingkindness, and hope that HE knows where we are going, and how we will get there.
But God could be like my bus driver. He does not owe us an explanation. He does not owe us hope.
He is gracious, though. And so He gives us reason to hope, the gift of hope, and hope itself.
What a blessing hope is.