The memory is vague these days
Probably those sleepless nights
…
“Lose your idealism”
These are the words that remain
Words from one who I do not know
Only known through a known
So why do these words matter?
Why do they hit close to home?
Maybe because there is no hope here
I have had my idealism stripped from me since that night
Slowly but surely
I have seen deception in man’s eyes
I have seen horrors I can’t describe
The evil of man
Hidden
Buried
I thought I could see
Turns out that what I could see
Was what I wanted to see
What I’d imagine God longs to see
But what isn’t the reality
The reality is pornography
The reality is genocide
The reality is fraud
The reality is robbery
The reality is assault
The reality is murder
The reality is rape
The reality is guns
The reality is gossip
The reality is drugs
The reality is pride
The reality is theft
The reality is fear
The reality is rage
The reality is racism
The reality is greed
The reality is envy
The reality is failure
The reality is sexism
The reality is judgement
The reality is consumerism
The reality is drunkenness
The reality is comparison
The reality is bitterness
The reality is rejection
I have always seen the best in people
But lately, that has been put to the test
It has been disheartening
Overwhelming
Shocking
Grieving
I have seen these horrors spreading
How sin is consuming
How what people say to your face
How people seem in a conversation
Does not reveal their heart
What is telling is the actions
Who can see behind the scenes?
Those private thoughts
Those misguided dreams
The daily dealings
The true character
That night I was reminded that
I don’t want to gain the whole world but lose my soul
( see Matthew 16:26)
While I may be idealistic at times
I am realistic too
The confusion
The tension
Is that
My hope is mistaken for idealism
But my hope is not the seen
That is why it may seem unreal
That is why it is labelled an ‘ideal’
My hope is a groaning
A waiting
An eager longing
For the revealing of the sons of God
For the freedom from bondage to corruption
For the possession of the freedom of the glory of the children of God
For our adoption as sons
And for the redemption of our bodies
( see Romans 8:19-21,23)
“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”
(Romans 8:24-5)
For according to God’s great mercy
We can be BORN AGAIN
To LIVING HOPE
Through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead
It is by his power that our inheritance
– which is imperishable, undefiled, unfading –
is kept in heaven and guarded through faith
for a salvation ready to be revealed.
(see 1 Peter:3-5)
My living hope is Jesus Christ
He is no ideal
He is the real deal
