The Danger Of Misplaced Hope

I’ve heard many times, from many people and articles, the phrase, “Keep hope alive. You’ll find a cure eventually/you’ll recover soon! Don’t get discouraged.” Most often, this phrase is used in relation to my illness (or illnesses in general). These words, however, are ones I’ve grown to dislike hearing, because of the implications they carry with them.

“Implications?” you ask. Yes, implications. These words imply that my only hope is to find a cure, and that if I’m not constantly keeping my focus on that goal, I’ve “given up”. It essentially is saying that my focus needs to constantly be on searching for a way to change my situation in life. And worse, it implies that putting my focus anywhere else is wrong or bad somehow. These are dangerous implications to make, in my opinion.

“Dangerous?” you ask. Yes, dangerous. Let me explain why.

For starters, finding a cure for physical problems – as nice as that may be – should never be our main focus in life. It shouldn’t be the thing that gives us hope when we wake up, or be our main pursuit as we go through the day. God should be. Our Lord and Savior should be the focus of all we do, and His Redeeming Grace should be the hope by which we live.

Psalm 146: 5-6a: Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is.

Psalm 39: 5, 7: Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. 7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.

Especially notice the phrase “verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity”. This life is fleeting. It fades away quickly and is gone. Even at our very best, it’s quickly declining into nothing. My focus and hope should be in the Lord and the eternal life he has promised me – where physical weakness and pain will mean absolutely nothing. There will come a day when all of the hardships of our life here will be gone forever, and that’s a Hope so much greater than a temporary cure here on earth.

Yes, it would be nice to find something to help, but until the time when He sees fit to bring that healing to me, my hope will remain in Him and his great mercy. He has placed me where I am for a reason. He has let my body be weak, allowed my physical state to be as it is, for a purpose.

People are always saying how great a miracle it is when people are healed from their illnesses. But I was already given the greatest miracle and gift God could have given me – when he healed me from my sin and transgressions against him. When he gave me eternal life, to walk with Him for all of time, in perfect health. He’s given me a gift greater than any cure ever can – and I will celebrate in that, and hope in that, and pursue the gifts that Greatest Gift has given me, first and foremost in my life.

And I hope, that if any of you are suffering things in your life as well, that you will do the same. That you will put your hope in the Lord and find the happiness that gift brings, rather than waiting for one that is so very pale in comparison. Don’t stake your happiness, your life, and your hope in something as fleeting as health and worldly things. Stake it in something everlasting.