“I feel like I’m becoming the poster child for hope deferred”.

Oh, the flair for the dramatic one can feel free to express in a journal! Yes, I actually wrote that this morning. I do some of my best writing when it’s just between me, my journal and God. Except now it’s out there, and it’s between me and whoever is reading my blog today.

Hope deferred seemed to be the theme of my week. I thought a situation was going to turn out differently than it did. I even spent a day fasting and praying over it. And God answered, as He always does in response to intercession. But it appears He didn’t answer in the way I thought He would.

The “hope deferred” reference came from Proverbs 13:12. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Oh yes, bring it on. Amen. I agree. Etch it on a plaque or hang it on a sticky-note above my desk.

And if that’s all there was to the verse, I could embrace it and wallow in it and hold it out to God and say, “See? I knew this was all in vain”.

But that’s not the end of the verse.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life”.

To defer something doesn’t mean it’s cut off. Hope deferred is not the same thing as being hope-less. God will continue to be faithful. He will continue to work all things for good. He will continue to provide and protect and sustain and bring trees of life out of seemingly barren land.

Maybe being the poster child for hope deferred really isn’t all that bad (as long as the picture on the poster is a good one, of course!). If God can use these sometimes wacky, sometimes entertaining, sometimes wistful dramas in my life to encourage others to keep holding on, keep believing, keep trusting, then it’s OK. I’m OK. And in time, it will all make sense and I’ll see what God was up to.

Defer my hope if you need to, Lord.  I’ll even be on that poster. And I’ll keep watching and waiting for those trees of life.

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope. Psalm 130:5

As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise You more and more. Psalm 71:14

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31