But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:21-24)
There are just times, hours, and days that just bog you down. They weigh on you and you get into a funk. The funk comes and it doesn’t seem to pass. For some of us that funk may not just be a minor lingering or laziness or discontent, that funk may be pervading sadness or alienation that overwhelms our abilities and sense to do anything worthwhile in the period of funkiness. It’s in those moments we have to do what the writer of Lamentation does: we have to “call to mind hope.”
The writer watched his entire nation burn to the ground and transform from an overflowing stronghold of life to a desolate wasteland filled with rubble and memories of what was. It’s too easy to just be sad, depressed, lazy, unmotivated, unenthusiastic, and lifeless. We can’t keep telling ourselves that it will pass because it may not. We must engage in the exercise of practicing hope. We must remember to remember what hope feels like and what it stirs up in us.
If we do remember hope, we remember what God’s intervention in our daily lives feels like. We remember the reason we get up in the morning is not our circumstances or the memories that bring us down into deep and dark places; but rather, that the reason we get up is because we look forward to God’s portion for our lives and the faithfulness of his grace and love that empower us to shine a little longer when all around us isn’t. Don’t forget to remember hope.
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