Waiting in Joyful Hope

Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1).

My father has a cat named Riley that follows him everywhere. The minute he sits down, Riley is in his lap. When he goes to the table to eat, she sits patiently at his feet and waits for him to finish his meal (and for the occasional handout). Dad refers to the cat as his “bunk buddy” because she hops up on his bed whenever he lies down. She will meow to alert people when she needs to go outside. And as soon as she finishes her business, she’s at the door meowing to come back inside and resume her vigil at Dad’s side. When Riley got real sick last summer, we were all concerned about how Dad would respond if she didn’t make it. There is a definite routine and rhythm to the day between the two of them.

When Dad was hospitalized for five weeks last fall, poor Riley was really confused. She sat on Dad’s bed for days waiting for him to come back, and would only leave when forced by Mom picking her up to put her outside. She would sit in the den and stare at the recliner where Dad usually sits. She would run to the living room whenever she heard the front door opening, likely expecting it would be Dad coming in. Days went by, then weeks. Dad didn’t come home. Still, the kitty kept to her routine of going to the familiar places where Dad usually is and waiting. Five weeks must have seemed like an eternity for the poor creature! It took her about 3 days to get her bearings back once Dad came home, but that is a story for another blog post.

Although animals don’t have faith and hope the way we humans do, the way Riley persisted in “hoping” for my Dad’s return provided an image of how we should remain hopeful and wait on God when He seems to be absent or when He just doesn’t appear to be answering our prayers at all. We need to keep going to those familiar places of prayer where we expect to find Him. His answer may not be a matter of a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No.” Sometimes the answer is ‘Yes, but not now.’ And then we must continue to trust that His plans and timing are perfect. If we can do that, the outcome will be even greater than what we imagined. As St. Paul wrote to the community in Rome, hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Rom. 5:5).

Last week, I found myself feeling rather down after learning that a number of colleagues with whom I have worked for most, if not all of the 23 years I’ve been with the company will no longer be around. With the prospect of even more layoffs to come and all the turmoil around the office with regard to that, it is coming home to me in no small measure how critical it is to root my hope solidly in Jesus Christ. As much as we don't like to think about it, without that hope, any one of us could succumb to despair, just as people we've read about in recent news headlines. As the familiar saying goes, “There but by the grace of God go I.”

Our political leaders in Washington DC and elsewhere are working feverishly to address the current economic crisis. We need to pray for them. The truth is that none of us knows what the future holds. We don't know when or if things will get better and what "better" might mean. But God does. So let us pray fervently for the people in government who are trying their best to fix things, and for all those people who are facing layoffs and struggling to hold on in the face of incredible economic and personal challenges. Most of all, let us pray for the renewal of our faith and trust that God’s plans for us are for [our] welfare, not for woe; plans to give [us] a future full of hope (Jer. 29:11). Then, let us wait in joyful hope.