The Things He Carried – Unfulfilled Hopes
Too good to be true
Just knew it.
Everytime we pin our hopes
on some new liberator
we come up disappointed.
The talk was good.
Even the action.
But, in the end,
we’re left high and dry yet again.
Is it us?
Our sense of judgement that’s wrong?
Are we too easily led?
Whatever the reason,
we keep on backing the wrong horse.
And only when we’ve thrown in our lot
and given up our livelihoods
are our hopes dashed once more.
This really seemed to be the real thing.
A revolutionary who was so extraordinary.
Who came, bringing peace, not a sword.
Preaching love, not hate.
Who spoke so eloquently
and backed up his words with action.
Who had us, quite literally, eating out of his hand.
We tried to tell him
that he’s gone far enough.
That he should keep it down for a while.
With so many folk in the city for Passover
it would have been easy to keep a low profile.
But Jesus always did it his way –
or his Father’s way, he claimed.
And so, instead of lying low
when the authorities were baying for blood
he walked right into their path.
He seemed to welcome arrest.
Even then, we thought that might be
some last heroic act.
But it doesn’t look much like it now.
There he hangs,
like any other common criminal
silenced, defeated.
And with him, all our hopes.
I wonder how many times we fall short of the hopes and expectations of others?
ReplyDeleteDifficult to fulfil though, when we are usually unaware of what these expectations are.
How many times do we follow the advice of our wise counsel?
What about the expectations and hopes Jesus has for us, how far short of them do we fall day by day?
He followed the hard path set for Him by the Father, in order that he could bring HOPE to this world.