Finding Hope: A Husband’s Perspective

Today was my day to write a post about hope. I told Daniel that I was going to skip it because I had nothing of worth to say. So he said he’d write one for me. I hope his words mean as much to you as they did to me.

From Daniel:

Your worst day might be the first day of the greatest journey ever.

There is always hope. Many people hope for a better job, a better house, better health, and a better life. But Jacinta’s writing, blogs, and brand have always focused on a deeper hope. One that, when all else fails, we cling to knowing God will never fail us.

Both Romans and Hebrews, talks about an assured hope. Something we know, but have not yet seen or experienced.

And something like that happened to those alive 2000 years ago. There was the darkest day ever. Actually, three of the darkest days ever. Christ was dead and Satan had won!

Have you ever had those moments in your life, where things seem so dark and so uncertain you don’t know how it is even remotely possible that you will climb out or survive?

We are going through something like that right now. There is a baby on the way. We had to buy a new car, because both of our cars are 25 years old and not reliable enough to get me to work. We are on basically a single income, and my formerly very secure job is ending one way or another soon. The mortgage and diapers are very expensive when you don’t have a job!

And I could spend my time asking God the age-old question of “Why?”

• Why did all this have to happen now?
• Why couldn’t he have let me know a week earlier about my job so I could plan better?
• Why did he let me buy a car now that I won’t have a job much longer?
• Why did he let my job become unstable when a baby is on the way?
• Why is he letting things get so out of control?

And then Good Friday came. I was reminded that I should also ask how could such a horrible, terrible day be called Good? Shouldn’t it be called the Most Awful Day in the History of the World? The God of the Universe who loved us so much that he became man was killed by Satan and his minions.

Yet, when we are at our lowest and when things are the darkest, is when God can truly move. Honestly, how can he move when everything is great and we think we have everything under control?

Or those long nights wresting with God and our doubts. Isn’t the darkest time that quiet right before the first rays of the sun lighten the sky? I’ve heard the darkest time of the night is right before the dawn. But, without the darkness, there would be no sunrise! And isn’t that glorious sunrise worth enduring the darkness for a short while?

Christ’s resurrection shows us something even more incredible. We celebrate the incredible gift of Christ coming to earth at Christmas. But that gift is only made incredible by his death. And his death is only made good because how Christ overcame it – he rose to life and conquered the grave! The darkest days in history were miraculously transformed by God into the greatest thing to ever happen to humanity.

I know that God loves me and has always provided for us. What we are going through right now is very hard and there seems like there are so many things that are going horribly wrong and I don’t seem to have control over anything. But maybe that’s the point. Things have to get rough enough that no one can doubt the eventual solution was all part of God’s plan. And then I have to get out of the way enough so that he can do something incredible. So maybe asking “Why” is asking the wrong question. Instead, I am clinging to the hope that how He is going to use this dark situation for His glory is going to be even more incredible than I can possibly imagine.