I recently read a post from a guy right after he had left a church service.  He was frustrated with the fact that the entire service was focused on having hope during hardship.  He went on to explain that he didn’t want to always be reminded of the difficulties going on in the world, he didn’t want to hear about the struggles, persecutions, and tragedies.  Instead, he said, I want to simply hear about the hope without all the heartache.

This thought led me to wonder about my own feelings.  Isn’t that how I act sometimes.  I want the hope of what is to come without having to experience the heartaches, the difficulties, the tragedies, and the hardships that come with life.  Interestingly enough Paul speaks to this when he writes in the book of Romans that for us to fully experience the hope we have as adopted children of God we will experience the sufferings of Christ as well.

This is hard for us to acknowledge and it is certainly not what we long for in our own daily lives. We are longing for hope that is guaranteed for all of us that are called according to His purpose.  The hope that tells us that nothing separates us from the love of God!

The truth is that there will be a day when we have the hope without the heartache.  The day when there will be no more night, no more weeping, no more sorrow.  But until that day we must feel the pain so that we can feel the joy on the other side.  We must experience the struggle so that we can enjoy the pleasure.  In order for us to embrace the light we have to know the difficulty of the dark.