Hope & Obsession

These days there is a lot of talk about hope especially in politics. Personally, I don’t have much faith in the political hope some people are touting.

Hope is a very important emotion. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is the essence of things hoped for. Ted Dekker in his book, “The Slumber of Christianity” suggests that hope the greatest emotion. I think, 1 Cor. 13:13 would disagree by because it lists faith, hope, and love and then saying the greatest of these is love. However, 1 Cor. 13 does show the immense importance of hope.

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, hope is: (1) to wish for something with expectation of its fulfillment (2) to look forward to something with confidence or expectation (3) to expect and desire. Hope is a strong emotion or desire. It can even become an obsession.

Obsession is: a persistent preoccupation with a somewhat unreasonable idea or feeling.

The human family tends toward being obsessed with something. We don’t necessarily like that fact. We would like to believe we strictly follow logic and are above obsession. But we are made in God’s image and He is obsessed. God is obsessed with you and me. He went to unreasonable lengths to draw us to himself. He chases us down even when we rebel against him. He forgives us over and over again. When you look at it logically, it is unreasonable how much he loves us.

So if we are to be obsessed, what should we be obsessed with? Ted Dekker believes we should be obsessed with the Kingdom of Heaven.

Matt 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all that he had and bought that field.” The man in this parable was obsessed with this treasure. He sold everything he had to obtain this field and it’s hidden treasure. Was this a reasonable thing to do? I guess it depends on the treasure that was hidden in this field.

What if this treasure was mostly about some way off future hope that showed very little financial benefit over the next 100 years? What if you lost out on opportunity after opportunity because you were sitting on this field and unable to cash in on this treasure?

Our treasure is in heaven and it is well worth anything we can invest while on this earth. Our hope is in heaven and in the unreasonable idea that God loved us enough to send His Son to the cross in our place. We should be obsessed with heaven. Are we?

July 4th

It’s official; I’m a grandpa! I am very thankful to have been on the scene. I was able to hold my daughter’s hand while she was having contractions at least for a little while. I am very proud of my daughter (Jessica) and her courageous 22-hour battle with those contractions. I am proud of her husband (Chris) because he was so gentle, loving and patient with her the whole time. He was a rock. Deb was there for 10 hours and was a much needed help. I was mostly a bystander but very grateful for the opportunity to be close by.

After all that work, the doctor made the decision to do a C-section because of some complications. Everyone was extremely disappointed but mother and baby Noah are doing great. Noah James Ocker was born on 7/04 at 7:04 PM. For the rest of his life Noah James will have fireworks to help celebrate his birthday.

I am thankful to have been there twenty minutes after Noah James was born to see him look at me with alert eyes, which followed me when I moved. He is 6Lbs. 14 oz. He seemed very happy to be set free on Independence Day. He was very active and alert. He often stretched his arms out wide not comprehending his newfound freedom. Jessica’s quote of the day after this was all over was precious. She said in a surprised voice, “I don’t have a lot of good things to say about this labor thing.”

With all that I am thankful for, the following is the thing for which I am most thankful. I walked through the day praying and enjoying fellowship with the Lord. I believe he was telling me he had a plan for our Noah’s life just as he had a plan for the life of Noah in the Old Testament. I wondered what kind of plan he had for Noah so I asked the Lord to show me how to pray for Noah. I wanted to agree with God’s plan and pray it over Noah. The Lord seemed to be telling me that as the old Noah saved the lives of others because he was obedient, so our Noah would save lives through his obedience. That is something I can get behind and pray through. I believe this by faith. I am not sure how all this will work out but I don’t have to have all the details. I will just claim it by faith for our Noah. Praise be to God!