For Others

I've noticed that hoping for good in others can be misunderstood.  In the time before fulfillment, it can be observed as persistent judgment.  It can be an annoying interest in things not yet complete or redeemed.

For example, I may hope that God will bring babies to my married friends, but the grief of long-waiting should sometimes not be complicated by the consciousness of disappointing others also.  Or I might hope that a friend will have the faith to do a hard but good thing, like keeping silent about a concern or moving to a third world country to do ministry or continuing a friendship with someone who has hurt them.

Also it is useful for me to remember that even though I hope someone may live up to a certain potential, that does not mean that in reality they are likely to be up for it.

Hope must be guided by love.  When is it loving to reveal our ongoing hope to others?  When is it loving to hold up a high expectation, and when is it more loving to set the bar at a more typical level?

Allegorical Painting

Hope by George Frederic Watts

For commentary on this painting, please read G.K. Chesterton's "Watts' Allegorical Paintings" from the collection "On Lying in Bed and Other Essays".

Nonsense

Buttercup: We'll never survive!

Westley: Nonsense.  You're only saying that because no one ever has.

~ The Princess Bride

Magical Place

"Once upon a time there was a magical place where it never rained.  --  The end." 

~ a villain from the movie Holes

Near the end of the movie:

The Time Before

"It will rain.  

Yes, it will.  

Sometime.  

It's just the time 

before it rains that is hard.  

It always is." 

~ Skylark (1993 film)

Passion of Patience

I wonder what this means?

"Fool! All lies in a passion of patience: my Lord's rule." 

~ Taliessin through Logres by Charles Williams

The quote is used in a discussion in CS Lewis' That Hideous Strength about waiting for orders, while it seems the circumstances are desperate and the good guys are doing nothing while evil advances.  But I'm curious what it means in the context of the original poem, Mount Badon.

Traveled A Long Way

"Some people try to turn back their odometers,

not me,

I want people to know why I look this way.

I've traveled a long way, and some of the roads

weren't paved."

One time a friend told me that waiting a long time to get married would all be forgotten once I actually get married: like the time will be erased; it will seem like a blink of an eye.  But I hope that isn't true.  The time spent has been on purpose - God's purpose.  In this time I have learned things that I didn't know: the road of hope was unpaved; with God over these years I have pioneered some new areas of my life, and maybe even among my friends.

What's more, the long-waiting does somewhat sweeten, and deepen, the potential fulfillment.  I understand differently what it is that I want, and why I want it.

I'm not afraid of scars, wrinkles, smiles, light in my eyes that testify to what God has brought me through.