Desperately Longing, Desperately Hopeful

You don’t have to look far to see the desperation of this turning world. A world in need. A world that spins fast and seems to take us all on the ride of our lives, whether we oblige or not.  

Desperation dresses in tailored suits, high heels, baggy sweatpants, dirty coats, and shoes with holes in the soles. Its presence around us is so prevalent that we have become altogether unaware of its existence.

Turn on the nightly news or scroll through your news feed and you can see the ache of the world. Stroll down the sidewalk or wander down the grocery aisle and you can see people hiding in plain sight. Lift your head up from the sink and gaze into darkened eyes in the mirror that are unrecognizable because the mask is more permanent than ever.

There is real pain of desperation in the eyes of the hurting and real desperate longing in the eyes of the eager; flip-sides of the same coin.

One side of this forever-flipping coin holds the pain of unfulfilled longing while the flip-side holds an eager longing that exists because of hopeful expectation. This same coin of desperation keeps flipping just like this desperate world keeps turning; making us all more similar than we are perhaps ready to admit.

In the midst of extremely opposite emotions, we can find ourselves existing in the same grocery store gridlock of being “I’m good, how are you?”…the conversational expectation we have foolishly created. We are so desperate to be like everyone else (or liked by everyone else) that grief turns into our hidden burden and excitement turns into our untold secret, just to maintain the status quo.

Life is hard and the sting of the world leaves a lasting impression on our weary bodies that carry around the eternity of our souls. But life is also a thrilling adventure of firsts that deserves our shouts of joy and excitement.

There is now “no condemnation for him who is in Christ Jesus” and we must stop holding ourselves captive to fear, shame, self-doubt, ridicule, expectation, and the like. 

We minimize ourselves and then do the same to those we are called to love as ourselves.

Made in the image of God, we allow ourselves to be made small, when He commands us to shine like a “city on a hill.” When we minimize our pain or we minimize our joy…we are minimizing the God who pursues us in it all.

So, I want to be among the first to stand up with hands held high to announce without fear that “It doesn’t have to be this way!” We can lay down the status quo that binds us to this world and instead claim the righteousness of Christ that binds us to the Kingdom. We don’t have to just be “I’m good, how are you?” because EVERY emotion in EVERY season of life has been fully redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ!

YOU are liberated to cry exhaustingly when tears are pouring out of the corners of your eyes. YOU are free to jump erratically when exhilaration cannot be contained in an upright posture.

YOU are dignified to fall into the arms of a beloved friend when the sting of life hits hard.

YOU are allowed to smile at strangers when the days are good and your soul is at peace.

YOU have permission to be the beautiful YOU that God is creating.

YOU have full authority to be just as you are in the presence of the God who is making you, so that the world in need of Him can see His masterpiece in you.  

We have been liberated by Christ and it is time that we start acting like it because this desperately turning world is in need of YOU.

YOU, on your best days and your worst days, are the roadmap pointing people to Jesus Christ.  

© Dani Hardy, June 12, 2019