This second blog from my dad’s selection was written in
December of 2013. In it, I reference the
2013 Denver Broncos. 2013 was a fun year
for Broncos fans. It was the
high-powered Broncos offense that got all the headlines. The team racked up a staggering 606 points (which
is an NFL record); quarterback Peyton Manning threw for 5,477 yards and 55
touchdowns (both are NFL records); Peyton secured the MVP of the league that
year; on and on we could go with that offense’s greatness.
But, for all of the record-breaking achievements Denver had that year, no one could have known, at the time I wrote this blog, the Broncos were going to be steamrolled and humiliated by the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48. The final score was 43-8. This historical context only further emphasizes my main point of the blog that day. Here now is a blog I wrote called “Where is your hope?”
One
of the definitions that dictionary.com gives for the word hope is “a person or thing in which expectations are
centered.” If there’s one thing I’ve
learned in my life it’s that you can inadvertently put your hope in the wrong
thing. I think this is a common
occurrence; it is certainly something that I struggle with from time to time in
my life.
Let
me give an example: I’ve gotten so swept up in the success that the Denver
Broncos are having that I’ve had visions of Denver going all the way to the
Super Bowl and winning. But what happens
if they don’t? What happens if the
defense is not strong enough to win a championship (particularly now that Von
Miller is out for the rest of the year)?
It’s easy for fans to put their hope in postseason success for an NFL
team, but that is much too unpredictable a source.
Around
this time of year, I think it’s easy to put your hope in the fact that you will
get the perfect Christmas gift. Well, it
may result in disappointment. You’ve
asked for the hottest newest trend or gadget, but instead you may get something
that is a complete disappointment and it will ruin your Christmas, if that’s
where you put your hope. Christmas gifts
are great, but this is not where one should put their hope, either. They should only be the cherry on top, as it
were.
As a
single man, I naturally gravitate toward putting all my hope in the fact that
one day I will get married. So I have
another Christmas without a wife this year, what does that do to me
emotionally? It does a lot if I’ve
inadvertently put my hope exclusively in having a spouse. To be sure, a husband or a wife is a gift
from God, but a finite human being cannot be your source of hope. The reason for this is because a spouse, no
matter how wonderful, is not perfect and will let you down.
So
where, then, should we put our hope?
Most of you can see where I’m going with this, can’t you? The Bible gives us the answer in Psalm
42. The Psalmist is pouring out his
angst to God. Perhaps he too put his
hope where it shouldn’t be. But then in
verse 5, we read, “Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise
him, my Savior and my God.” Where should
we put our hope? We should put our hope
in the God of the universe. Anyone or
anything else is completely inadequate.
Kevin
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