Remember Where our HOPE Comes From

12/21/2022

Written By: Kailee Turner

As I was driving into work last week, the song “Good Grace” came on the radio. Funny how a song you’ve heard and sung numerous times can just HIT YOU one morning. Specifically, the line that is sung “Remember where our help comes from” hit me full-force at 7:00 in the morning, hello good morning!

To be honest, I thought this line was always “remember where our HOPE comes from” until I looked up the lyrics in preparation for this. Hence the combining of the two words to reflect on today: help and hope. In typical English-teacher-fashion, let’s start with the definitions of each word.

Help is defined as “making it easier for (someone) to do something by offering one's services or resources”

Hope is defined as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen”

If we were to combine those definitions together I think it would be something like this: making it easier for someone to desire a certain thing to happen by offering one’s services.

It doesn’t take long to notice, however, that we tend to focus our attention towards helping and hoping in things that ultimately can’t have lasting effects as we push towards an eternal-mindset. I mean just watch the 1st quarter of a Colts game and you know that to be true.

Or maybe you’ve put your hope/help into fixing someone else’s issues when in reality YOU are the one who needs to be fixed (changed, rather) by God. Maybe it's something like hoping you would get the next job offer, or hoping for the next season of your favorite Netflix show. Likewise, maybe you have extended help before and instead of being met with gratitude you were met with dismissal and arrogance.

But what would it look like if we went back to the basics? To actually focus on these definitions and be reminded that God created these aspects to produce goodness in our lives?

Let’s start with hope. Christmas is right around the corner and seems to be the most anticipated/hopeful time of year! People wait for Santa, presents, and ALL the holiday treats.

In the 1st century, people were hoping for the Messiah regardless of background or occupation: Magi, kings, peasants, even the animals knew something was up! The magi were hopeful for baby Jesus. If you’ve been in church recently, you know that Josh has mentioned that the Magi were 2 years late to seeing Jesus as an infant. 2 years of hoping and expectation?! We can’t even wait a day for Amazon Prime!

Matthew 2:2 says, “...We saw his star and have come to worship him.” They were expecting Jesus and desired to go and see Him! A little later in the passage in verse 9 it says, “...they went on their way and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

The Magi were hopeful and expectant for the King, anxiously awaiting to see Him for years until when the time finally came, all they could do was bow down and worship. When was the last time you were “overcome” by hope?

Now onto help. Jesus was known by many names but one of my favorites has to be “Ultimate Helper”. This is the name I personally relate to the most. I’m an encourager and helper through and through (hello Enneagram 2s).

Check out any Psalm and you’ll probably see David proclaiming to Jesus as “my help”. Later in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is also known to be the “advocate” or helper.

At Chick-fil-a where I worked for 5 years and met my future husband, we called this stewardship/helper mindset the “extra mile” like mentioned in Matthew 5:41, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” In customer service, this looked like refilling drinks, taking trash off of tables, or helping the mom with kids everywhere take their food to their table.

In the Matthew story, this looked more like “offering one’s services to make it easier for the other” despite what the individual ACTUALLY wanted to do. A Jew carried a Roman soldier’s gear one extra mile, even though he was only required to do one. I can guarantee the Jewish man wanted to do other things like fish or fix his sandals rather than carry some stinkin’ Roman’s gear. Yet instead, he portrayed helpfulness and didn’t expect anything in return (which he knew he wasn’t getting anyway and STILL did it).

A helpful spirit should be born out of selfless humbling, not selfish “look what I did!” mentality. How often do we disguise our own selfishness and pride as merely saying we are helping others? If we’re honest with ourselves, we are probably doing more harm than good, completely disregarding the purpose of being helpful! The whole premise of helping is to make things easier, not harder for others.

As we approach this holiday season and begin reflecting on 2022 so very soon, let us remember where our help/hope comes from. Aim for help-induced hope. Are we making it easier for someone to desire a certain thing to happen by offering one’s (our) services? Are we allowing ourselves to receive the same combination of help and hope?

This gift should not come from other people, situations, or material things but rather from the one who so freely gave of Himself and gave us the gift of hoping in Him: Jesus, only Jesus. The One we seek help from and the One we put our hope in.

Good Grace, Good God, His name is Jesus.