By FRANCIS REMKIEWICZ
Columnist
I listened intently to a sermon (a message if you will) in church recently and its main theme intrigued me. As Christians we always talk of faith, hope, and love as gifts from God. Over the course of my lifetime, I heard more than a fair share of sermons on faith and who knows how many sermons on God’s love for us, and our reciprocal love of God. Hope, oftentimes like a middle child, is caught between the oldest child, faith, and the youngest child, love and left to languish. Fear not, good people! We take on the value of hope and find the value therein. However, I believe that trust will get dragged into this discussion.
The best place for all Christians to start any discussion is the Bible. So, I found three quotes that will suffice.
Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Isaiah 40:31 ~ But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Romans 8:24-25 ~ For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Merriam Webster defines hope as “to cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true”. The Cambridge dictionary defines hope as “to want something to happen or to be true, and usually have a good reason to think that it might”. In both definitions there is the modern-day context of aspiration or expectation but does that fit in with the biblical quotes? It seems to me that those quotes from the Bible hold more than an expectation.
One may think that based on what we know about hope and trust those two words have the same or similar meaning. Merriam Webster defines trust as: “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something”. To be consistent the Cambridge dictionary defines trust as: “to believe that someone is good and honest and will not harm you, or that something is safe and reliable”.
So, are hope and trust two different words with the same or even a similar meaning? At least in the way those words are used in the Bible. I really think not. As we shall discover there is a significant gap between trust and hope.
The difference between hope and trust is based on the difference between humankind and God. The gap is the difference between what we as people can accomplish and what God can accomplish. In hope we find the aspirations, the expectations, the desires of men, either themselves, or others around them that may or may not fulfill those very same expectations and aspirations. Humans are at best fallible, error prone, and forgetful. At their worst humans are avaricious, greedy, self-centered, and self-serving. Humans are also prone to use others to get what they desire, not what is best for the common good. Examples abound: The 1970’s Savings and Loan Scandal including Charles Keating and five sitting United States Senators; The World Telecom and the Enron Scandals, and most currently the bitcoin/crypto currency scandal. Once upon a time everyone hoped to own their own home. Many banks and loan companies floated bad credit paper for potential homeowners. In the years 2007-2009 home ownership came crashing down around that hope and millions lost their homes and thousands became homeless or near homeless. The hope of people, in people was not just misplaced, in many cases it was criminal. The hope of the Israelites in a golden calf put forward by other Israelites was met by the wrath of God.
In trust we find something completely honest and forthright. We in most cases would call trust to be sacred.
Trust comes from God. God has never promised and not delivered. God promised and made Saul a King. God promised to deliver the Israelites from bondage, sent Moses, and the Israelites free from tyranny and slavery. God promised to destroy the world and sent a flood. God promised to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and did. However. We pause here for just a moment. Somewhat uniquely Abraham played a version of “Let’s make a deal” with God. Abraham, the loving and merciful father of a nation, asked God to spare those two cities if 50, no 45, no 30, no 10 righteous people could be found in the two cities. Maybe strangely, God agreed. Unfortunately, not even 10 good people were found and so God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It is interesting to note that God is willing to listen to humankind and temper or alter God’s own plans.
In closing I will add one last thought. In the Hebrew language, there are twelve different translations for hope, the one closest to what we are discussing, trust, is the theme of trust and confidence in “YHWH”. It turns out that the human definition of hope is not what the authors of the Bible intended.
Of all that we have talked about, this experience should never be forgotten. In Genesis God promised a savior that would bring salvation to all people, past, present, and future. Thousands of years later Jesus, born of Mary and son to Joseph, cousin of John the Baptist was born. The Son of God fulfilled the promise of the Father and in fact brought salvation to every person, past, present, and to be born. That tells me that no matter how long it takes God is the person to place your trust in. Do not be alarmed when God’s time differs from ours. God has never failed us, the “proof is in the pudding”. Trust is not the stepchild that I thought it was. Trust is the bridge between faith and love. May we all cross that bridge sooner than later.
Francis (Frank) Remkiewicz is an area resident and contributes a monthly column focused primarily on faith and religion. He can be reached at fremkiewicz@gmail.com. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
