A Thrill of Hope

One of my favorite Christmas hymns, O Holy Night, has a line that makes my heart skip a beat every time I hear it... "A thrill of hope..."

Hope is thrilling... Not some far away, vague, impersonal hope for something you somewhat want, but a hope that is so real, so specific... Something your heart longs for more than anything, something you so greatly and deeply desire with every living, breathing cell of your body... When it's so close you can smell it, taste it, feel it... now that's thrilling... Imagine wanting something so bad, you think about it every waking second, pray about it every night... Or imagine wanting something so great, so seemingly impossible, so unlikely, something you don't think could ever happen to you... And then it does.

In Pride and Prejudice, my #1 favorite movie, Mr. Darcy delivers a line that I can very much relate to... about daring to hope as we have scarcely allowed ourselves to before... In a world were we are always told not to get our hopes up, and be careful (especially when it comes to love), it's easy to let go and lose sight of hope... Expectations lead to disappointments, isn't that what they say? Well what about when that hope and that faith actualizes and becomes reality? Can you just image the trill of that? Imagine getting everything you've ever wanted... Or at least one thing you really want... Like a child unwrapping a Christmas present he's been asking his parents for all year long... Imagine the joy, the rush, "the thrill"... Have you ever felt it?

It has happened to me a handful of times. Enough to know that it can, and it does... I'm a bit familiar with "the thrill"... Thinking about those times still gives me chills... Every now and then I get a glimpse of what God has in store for me and it's an adrenaline rush that rivals any roller coaster... I don't think there's a more powerful feeling... Except the presence of God, of course :)

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the thrill of getting something temporary, something that doesn't or won't last, because once that's over, you're right where you were before... It's not "the thrill of the chase" of something to stroke your ego... It's more like knowing that this is something you could have never achieved or received on your own, but it was given to you as a gift, a miracle... by God's grace...

So what are you afraid to hope for? What are you not allowing yourself to believe in? What do you dare not think about? I was listening to one of pastor Judah's messages on God's grace, and it really blessed me when he said that sometimes we just need to get our hopes up...

In this season of Christmas, the season of miraculous grace, God wants you to experience "the thrill of hope"...