The Place We Find Ourselves #18: Why Your Story Makes It Hard to Hope

Adam Young
Podcast
Connection With
God

Do you ache for things that just don’t happen? You can’t get into grad school. You can’t have a baby. Your dad just won’t be what you need. How do we sustain hope when it keeps being crushed? There is a real temptation to deaden desire, to not expect so much. But maybe there is another way.  

Maybe there is a sweet spot on the other side of cynicism. Maybe we can express honestly our longings to God, and because of the resurrection, wait stubbornly with expectant hope. Such a posture takes courage – and it changes the one who hopes.

I (James) have experienced crushing disappointments throughout life that have led to “where the h*** are you, God?” anguish. But I am also finding the place Young describes, where I live with aching desire, express my deepest wants to God and wrestle honestly with God when those longings are thwarted.

The podcast ends with a quote from Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Animal Dreams: “The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for and the most you can do is live inside that hope – not admire it from a distance but live right in it under its roof.”  

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