Hope

Over the past two days I have been battling the idea of hope and what its definition truly means to me.
Is hope something we can put in false objectives just to keep ourselves moving?
Can our entire basis of life hope be tied around something that is already gone?

As a Christian I am constantly in a state of dispute with myself on my hope. I know what it is supposed to be, but I am not sure if that is what I truly want. We are supposed to pursue a life of service to better the world, to essentially bring "heaven to earth." But I find myself wanting to pursue things that involve my heart and my desires. What I want to do and what I want to be. Where does that leave me, but broken and constantly disappointed. So what do I put my hope in?

" I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
26Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will live in hope,
27because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
28You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence."
-Acts 2:25-28

This is probably one of the most powerful verses I have read in a really long time, and the way Paul's poetic language speaks to the reader is absolutely incredible. We as the human race took God and nailed him up to a cross. The same God that created the heavens and earth, we thought we could defeat. But even though He died the most painful death, He left us with a message that changed the world forever. He left us with hope. He will never abandon us; no matter how amazing our life is or how detrimental it might get, he is always "at my right hand." And the thing that gets me about this verse is that it is not just one of those "feel good" verses, it also reinforces our mission of the world.
"You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence." Our hope is derived from others happiness. Our hope lies in a future, a past, and a present. We are hopeful that our God died for our sins, hopeful that He is right beside us, and hopeful that He will help us be instruments of change in the world. Not only are we hopeful, but we are cognizant of truth as well.
Hope is an energy, it requires action. Hope requires one to think optimistically, which to many people is more difficult than pulling teeth. But hope in the Lord falls much deeper than optimism, because it is hope in something real. My hopes for my life are constantly changing.
1) I hope to one day fall madly in love and raise an amazing family
2) I hope to have my dream job and never worry about finances
3) I hope that Obama wins the election, ending the war and poverty
4) I hope that people can be nice and genuine without effort
5) I hope we can work together to help those in need

My hopes are of things that can pass with time, and never be remembered. But God's hope is on such a larger scale it is incomprehensible. I hope that His hope is to feed and clothe every body on the earth. To absolutely improve the quality of life for every breath we take. That every relationship we build is found deeply in our love for Him. That we can genuinely love one another without wanting anything in return. His hope is for us to love and nothing more.
We can live our lives of misdirection and distraction, but at the end of the day that life is still worth living because He was there in every wrong turn and wrong decision. He stood by us and continues to stand just to give us hope that we are always loved. And all He does is encourage us to do the same to others.

Love is contagious,
Meg