Isn’t it strange how there are some days when everything about life seems to be perfect?

You wake up and look out the window only to see the sun is shining.

Your coffee to creamer ratio is balanced to perfection so you are able to enjoy every last sip of your ‘good morning’ cup.

Your spouse is in a great mood so instead of being cranky with one another before parting ways, you share a joke that keeps you laughing for the next few hours every time you remember it.

Your kids seem to have swallowed cute pills before they went to bed the night before so everything coming out of their mouths is charming and adorable.

And you can’t help but stop and think, “Man, life is good. People are kind. God is so amazing.”

But what about the days when things don’t go so well? 

You wake up feeling like you never went to sleep.

Your coffee is cold.

Your spouse is cranky.

And your children are hungry and whiney.

You go to work only to find out you are behind on something you didn’t know was your responsibility.

You hear a depressing story about a friend’s life that makes you feel angry.

You hear a story on the news that makes you blatantly aware of the injustices in this world.

And on those days, you can’t help but  stop and think, “Man, life is disappointing. People kind of stink. Why does God allow things like that to happen?”

This has been a week filled with many of these days for me.

I have heard several disappointing stories from people I care about. Stories that made me stop and think about the fact that life can be very sad. And distressing. And unpredictable.

Stories that made my heart hurt for the people wrapped up in them.

Stories that made me think that people can be very ugly and selfish and unkind.

Stories that make a person begin to feel jaded.

So here’s my question for you. 

How do we live in a world that is full of imperfection, acknowledge it is imperfect, but not embrace the imperfection? How do we keep from swallowing the stories of defeat we hear or owning someone else’s negativity as our own?

A colleague and I were discussing this very thing last night, and then I was met with another disheartening story this morning when I woke up, and I was overcome with sadness.

Well I don’t exactly know ALL the answers to my own questions, but I do know one thing.

If I only look to humanity to give me hope, I will likely find hope in humanity at CERTAIN times. And if I only look to humanity to give me hope, I will likely be disappointed in humanity at CERTAIN times, which makes me think…

Humanity is an inconsistent way to find hope.

And I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want my source of hope to be inconsistent because I’m the type of girl that needs hope. And I’m the type of girl that craves consistency. And preferably I want them to be intertwined.

Lucky for me, there is this one man that is super consistent in the hope he offers humanity.

His name is Jesus, and He is ALWAYS good, even when the world is not.

And at the risk of sounding like a cheerleader, I just have to say, “Yay for us!” because that means it’s okay for humanity to disappoint us at times. In fact, it’s kind of in humanity’s job description to disappoint, and I sincerely mean that in the most non-jaded way that I can.

Because Jesus is the one person with the job description of offering us that level of consistent, unending hope. And coincidentally He is also the only one capable of doing it. So I choose to draw my hope from Him when feeling disappointed because His hope doesn’t run dry.

That doesn’t mean it is always easy to do so especially during weeks like this when everything seems negative, but it does mean that if I look to Him in my distress (or pray to Him, cry to Him, yell at him, you fill in the blank), I WILL eventually find hope because Jesus is overcoming the world’s troubles one by one.

In fact, His life, death, and resurrection mean the job is already done. And claiming that He has already overcome the darkness of this world is not necessarily easy, but hopeful in itself. And while I will honestly admit I prefer for all things in my life to be easy, I will choose hope over ease any day.

In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 

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