HUNGER AND HOPE

Proverbs 13.12, 19
HUNGER AND HOPE
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." (13.12)

DOCTORS ADVISE US TO EAT REGULAR meals. It is good for our stomachs to adjust to a schedule. In so doing, when hunger calls, food comes. We know how it is when we do not satisfy our hunger pangs. After a while, the hunger goes away, and with it, our appetite. Unless we are fasting, such a disruption of our eating pattern is not good for our health.

Hope is like hunger. It gnaws at us and works itself like an empty stomach, an aching void. And when it is unfulfilled, it languishes. So we lose our appetites and our hearts fall sick. When hope is repeatedly denied, what else is there to live for? But what a difference when the hunger is satisfied or the hope realized! We become a tree of life, refreshed, and ready to refresh others. Indeed, "a longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul" (v. 19). It spurs us on.

The saying is a descriptive proverb, meaning it describes a phenomenon which is true of life. It does not therefore make every object of hope or desire legitimate, nor does every longing fulfilled constitute a tree of life. We have an example of Amnon, whose heart became love-sick because his hope to be with his half-sister, Tamar, was deferred. He then tricked her in order to fulfill his longing, but the story ends not with life but tragedy and death (Il Sam 13.1-29).

The proverb teaches the importance of the kind of hope we cherish. We can harbour false hopes, and live in delusion. Of such, Benjamin Franklin says, "He who lives on hope will die fasting." We can deceive ourselves with unrealistic expectations of our spouses, our friends, our church and ourselves. We become miserable when these expectations are not met.

We sometimes give false hopes to others by offering more than we can deliver. It may be better to say no, and deny a hope, than to say yes and then defer the hope indefinitely. This is especially so when we are dealing with children. By their nature, they believe what we promise them. Children are hurt by our thoughtlessness because they are better at remembering the promises we make than we do in keeping them.

Ultimately, we have to place our lives in a hope that will certainly be fulfilled. Some of us have been let down so many times that we wonder if there is anyone left we can believe or trust completely. Praise God, there is. Of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are told: "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Heb 6.19). In him, our life-long hopes will surely be fulfilled.

Am I harbouring or fostering false hopes?