Be Joyful in Hope

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, constant in prayer.

Romans 12:12

Be joyful in hope. That phrase has been on a loop in my head since 2015. Daily, I hear it. Sometimes it feels like a comforting reminder, others like a cruel taunt. Joyful in hope. What does that even mean? They’re nice words to say, sure. But how on earth do I even do that, really? Be joyful in hope? I guess first I have to understand what it means.

Joyful. Joyfulness: A condition of supreme well-being and good spirits. Hope. A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.

Well, that’s the epitome of prayer, isn’t it? Faith and trust that God will provide what it is that we so desire deep down? I heard someone say once that we’re supposed to pray like an expectant mother waiting for her baby. It’s already been planted, and now we wait. It will come in due time. Be patient.

Jonathan and I went to Charleston this past February. Our first real vacation since the summer of 2016. We planned it at the end of December, and each day I’d sit at my desk and dream happily about walking down King Street, the sun beating down on my shoulders. I could see it. I could feel it. And it brought me joy. I knew the day was coming. Soon, we’d pack up our belongings, put them in the trunk of the car, and drive the 3 hours South. And in the meantime, I could be joyful in that expectation. It was coming.

Hope. Expectation. It’s hard to have hope and be doubtful at the same time. Or rather, it’s hard to be doubtful and have hope at the same time. Raise your hand if you’ve been living in a state of doubt lately? I know I have been. I’ve been doubting all over the place, and then I wonder why I feel like a disappointment. To myself. To the people who believe in me. And worst of all, to God. A disappointment. Doubt is a cancer. It seems deep into your soul and destroys your life from the inside out.

The cure? Joyfulness and hope. Joyfulness is different than happiness. Joyful is a condition, a state of your heart, a perspective and outlook. Happiness is temporary. Fleeting. An emotion. You can have Joyfulness without happiness.

I have a funny story about how I came across that piece of scripture. It’s an important piece of scripture to me. In fact, I’d go so far to say it’s my scripture. It hangs over the bed in our master bedroom; the words bleeding into my heart every single day.

You all know the story of when football made a dramatic exit from our lives at the end of 2014. I’ve told you before that inexplicably, I turned to God, knowing I couldn’t face what was coming on my own. I say inexplicably because I did not have a solid relationship with Christ at that time. I was a sometimes Sunday Christian at best. Well, in an attempt to seek comfort, I turned to the internet, searching for scripture to ease the fear in my heart. This piece of scripture was the first result, and it immediately spoke right to my heart, lifting the weight of the fear and clearing the fog of the anxiety. And then I saw it, Romans 12:12. Of course, I laughed to myself.

You see, my family has a special connection to the number 12. My grandfather died on the 12th of December, long before I was born. And I realize it’s a weird thing we do, but we hold that number sacred, finding extra blessings in all things twelve. Twelves pop up in all meaningful things, like a gentle little wink from above.

So it’s only fitting that the scripture that runs through my veins daily, commanding me to be joyful in hope would reveal a 12. Because of course it does. And that, my friends, is hope.