I invented a new word. My personality type likes to find (and use) nuances. So, my new word is PROSSIBLY. It’s a mashup of possibly and probably. Possibly still leaves a lot of room to say no. Probably is much closer to yes. So, what do you do if you really want to do something – more than possibly – but you still have a hesitation – less than probably? The answer? PROSSIBLY!! It’s come in quite handy, just ask my girls. Feel free to use it yourself. Maybe we can get Webster’s to include it in their next edition!
Along a similar line, we have hope and faith. Our Sunday School lessons this month are studying hope in I Peter. To put it simply, hope is a wish or desire while faith is an assurance and trust in something. Do we hope such and such will happen or do we have faith that it will? Peter wrote “In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1:3) We have and put our faith in the resurrection of Jesus. We affirm and believe it. That faith gives us a “living hope.” This hope is alive and breathing. Perhaps this living hope is the middle ground between (regular) hope and faith. This living hope is much more powerful and assertive than regular hope because it is based on our faith in Jesus.
You remember the old illustration? Faith is having so much assurance that you don’t even stop to think about it, like sitting down in a chair. When you pull out a chair you don’t stop to inspect it, test it to see if it will hold you. No! You just sit down – because you have faith in the chair. As Christians, we can live our lives in the faith – the assurance – that Jesus is in control and taking care of us. Based on that, we can hope for all kinds of other things. Whether or not they happen will have no effect on our faith. Faith is the foundation. We hope to build this or that but Jesus, the great carpenter, will make the final decisions. As we grow closer to Him and become more like Him, we will find our hopes becoming more fulfilled because we will hope for the things that He would want. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy so to speak.
In these uncertain times, our foundational faith gives our hope wings to rise above the chaos.
Until our next togethering,
love ya,
Bret
