06 Dec You always live for that to which you have fastened your hope.
December 6, 2010
I once heard a speaker say, “If I spend one day with you, I’ll tell you where you’ve anchored your hope.” So, to what am I fastening my hope today?
Some days, it’s a work project I’m looking forward to. Other days, it’s dinner plans at a nice restaurant, or brownies I’ll bake when I get home. Other times, it’s the weekend.
And yet, the times I’m most deeply satisfied are when my mind is wrapped around some aspect of God or His kingdom, and I’m abiding there…When my hopes, my dreams, my aspirations, are focused on loving God and loving people…the two priorities Jesus said are most important.
St. Augustine wrote, “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” But when our hearts are not resting in Him, they are restlessly searching for somewhere else to rest. Something else to hope in. Something lesser, trying to achieve happiness, peace, fulfillment, and contentment. But, over time, these lesser things taint us, permeating who we are, making us so much less than God intended.
In my own battle to regain my health, after I had become so desperately debilitated, I found that there were many things I ran to daily, fastening my hope to, trying to get a “fix,” that were slowly poisoning me: unhealthy foods, sugar, a hectic life trying to “achieve.” I had fastened my hope to the wrong things, and my health greatly suffered. As I’ve purified myself of these things, life is so much sweeter, and my health is so much better.
Like David, I can say, “I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, put your HOPE in the Lord, both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 131:2,3)
So, to what will you fasten your hope today?