I had experienced a rough day when I pulled this verse, and hoped God would bring a revelation to address my struggles; at first, this seemed far from that.  This verse is not revelatory, it is just describing what is: it hurts when our hopes take too long, and it feels good when they are fulfilled.  “You gave me a dud verse, God.”

He knew what He was doing.  I desired to move out of my frustration into a more spiritual space, and He simply named the obvious: today was disappointing.  Sometimes we just have to name the frustrations.  In the Harry Potter series, everyone refers to the antagonist Voldemort as “he who must not be named” out of fear of what might happen otherwise.  Harry — raised outside of that construct — called him by his name, and unintentionally operated in a boldness and courage others had abandoned.  They begin to realize they were giving power to fear; as they began calling Voldemort by his name, they became more empowered even as he grew stronger.

Jesus said “in this world you will have trouble,” (John 16:33) and when we refuse to be honest about that we can give power to a whole army of fears.  When we name the reality of hardship, we can wrest power back and — instead of keeping it and shaping our lives — give it to the One who rightly (and lovingly) warrants power over us.  I am learning to replace my grumbling with humble honesty; when I do, I find I can stand even as the hardships grow stronger.