The mother answers the phone and knows she is going to get dreaded news from her son. He has applied for a job on the west coast. It is what he has always wanted to do and he has a good chance of getting it. He is her only son. He will take with him her only grandchild when he moves. Yet, she hopes he gets the job.
"Mom, I got the job!" Her son explodes with excitement. He tells of how he thought he might but how he was afraid of hoping too much. He feared the disappointment a refusal might bring. He tells of what he will be doing and what he has to do to get ready. He gives the day he will start.
Mom puts on her best face. She tries to act as excited as she can. She tells him that his new boss would be a fool to have passed him by. She is truly happy for her son. However, she already misses him and he hasn't even gone.
This is hope that comes from love. It is a hope that comes with sacrifices. It is a hope that may mean you lose something that you really wanted. It is the hope that your child will surpass your own accomplishments. It is a hope that seeks riches and esteem for your friends that go beyond yours. It is a selfless hope.
Hope that cost me nothing gives little evidence of love. Hope that esteems others more than me gives great evidence of love.
If you are not hoping for the best for others when it will cost you the place you have carved out, when you are no longer the alpha dog, you do not have love.
Love always hopes. It always hopes for the best for others even it may mean something less for yourself.
True hope is found in love.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:7 (NIV)
7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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