Hope is a dangerous thing!

The title if this post is a quotation from the movie, "Shawshank Redemption." Last night, my dad and I watched the movie together. Afterwards, we talked about hope.

In the movie, Andy Dufresne, an innocent man convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover, is sentenced to life in prison. Unlike his friends, who feel that it would be better just to stay in those walls than to face the world outside, he holds onto the hope of one day escaping. "Red," his closest friend, and a man of great importance in the prison, tells him that, "Hope is a dangerous thing." But Andy, who eventually digs his way to freedom, disagrees. The day before he crawls through the tunnel that took him nineteen years to build, he tells Red if he ever gets out of prison to go to a stone wall and look for something under a rock. That little statement gives Red the hope he needs to keep going on.

"The hope that Andy planned for Red, was meticulous and wonderful, but it is so inferior that the hope God has planned for us." My dad said after we finished watching. During our conversation about the hope God has for us, I realized something. All my life, I have been living for the next good thing. My birthday, a fun event, whatever it was, that was what gave me a reason to keep going. Since I have matured in my desires, the main thing I wanted was marriage. Honestly, I thought that I was so radical because that was what I wanted to do. I was going to be different than the feministic culture around me. Now, if I did these good deeds, I would get a husband.

Why was this not making me happy? Because, though marriage is a good gift from God, it is a temporary blessing that, if lived-for, becomes an idol. Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."What is that reward? "I am your shield, your very great reward." says Genesis 15:1. I was unfulfilled because my reward really is God and not the earthly blessings after which I was so earnestly seeking. Hope can change your world; it changed mine. Hope is a dangerous thing.