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In 2025, I found myself
wrestling with frustration that

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God was not giving me joy.
And then God very patiently told

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me what was actually happening.
It wasn’t that he was

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withholding joy, it was that I
was rejecting it.

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What followed was an invitation
to spend 30 days looking at 30

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passages on Joy and turning it
into a devotional called

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Rejecting Joy No longer.
You’d think I would have learned

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that coming into 2026, I was
wrestling with hope.

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God, why are you making me so
hopeless?

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And God very patiently let me
know the reality.

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He wasn’t withholding hope.
I was rejecting it.

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And so now here I am, spending
30 days looking at 30 passages

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on hope.
And my hope is that this

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encourages you.
One thing that’s different this

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year is I felt like God was
inviting me to be publicly

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transparent with my processing.
To actually go live on social

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media, pull out a random verse,
and then read and process

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through it on camera.
This isn’t me coming to you as

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an expert on hope, but me coming
to you honestly as someone

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wrestling with hope.
And by witnessing that some of

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you might feel less alone, may
feel seen and understood, may

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end up being encouraged in a way
that is far deeper than the best

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platitude.
So join me as I spend 30 days

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navigating 30 passages on Hope.
This is day nine.

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You’re listening to episode 216
of the Where Did You See God

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podcast Probably.
I just want to thank you that

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you are God and you are good,
and I thank you.

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Thank you for gift of your word
and the gift of brains that can

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process it, and the gift of
souls that can hear what our

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brains might miss.
So I pray, Holy Spirit, that you

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would move and speak and that I
would have ears to hear Holy

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Spirit move.
Last term is the only name.

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Amen.
All right, First Corinthians

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1519 if in Christ we have hope
this life only we are of all

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people most to be pitied.
I simultaneously love this verse

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and don’t love it.
I love it because it affirms

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some of the crazy ways I have
operated, and I don’t love it

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because it can really emphasize
ways in which life might not be

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the way that I want it to be.
If in Christ we have hope in

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this life only, we are of all
people most to be pitied.

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I do want to pull up First
Corinthians 13 just to see if

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there’s some context that could
give us a little more goodness

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this morning.
But this verse alone, some of

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the times that we struggle to
really believe that God is

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working to have hope and what He
is doing is because of the very

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clear ways it’s not happening.
Like it’s not working out that

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things are getting harder,
things are getting worse.

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Good things aren’t happening.
Things that seem like they would

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bring God glory aren’t
happening.

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And and it’s perplexing and
frustrating.

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And it’s because we tend to have
eyes and ears that only perceive

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this life only.
So we’re basing God’s presence

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and work and love on the here
and now impacts on the here and

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now experiences.
But God’s not bound to the here

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and now.
God is not bound to this life.

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Only God is actually doing
immeasurably more than we ask or

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imagine.
God is actually operating with

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an eternal mindset.
God is actually operating with

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an understanding of all of
creation, not simply me.

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And so here I am getting worked
up about what’s happening in my

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life today, in this period of
time.

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And I I cannot comprehend nor am
I willing to try to grasp the

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reality that me and here and
now.

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It’s not even this compared to
eternity and all of creation,

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Not even a pinprick.
And so if my understanding of

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hope, if my hopes, my basis of
hope are all bound to this life

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only, as Paul puts it, we are of
all people most to be pitied.

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The apostle Paul gave his life
preaching about this Christ, and

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it was just for this life.
He died for nothing.

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He had a better gig prior to
Jesus, but he came to know

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something more.
So I’m going to read a little

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bit of this just in case.
But if it is preached that

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Christ has been raised from the
dead, how can some of you say

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that there is no resurrection of
the dead?

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If there is no resurrection of
the dead, then not even Christ

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has been raised.
And if Christ has not been

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raised, our preaching is useless
and so is your faith.

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More than that, we are then
found to be false witnesses

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about God.
For we have testified about God

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that He raised Christ from the
dead, but He did not raise him

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If in fact the dead are not
raised.

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For if the dead are not raised,
then Christ has not been raised

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either.
And if Christ has not been

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raised, your faith is futile.
You are still in your sins.

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Then those also who have fallen
asleep in Christ are lost.

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If only for this life we have
hope in Christ, We are of all

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people most to be pitied.
But Christ has indeed been

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raised from the dead, the first
fruits of those who have fallen

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asleep.
And it goes on.

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Paul is pushing against their
locked in understanding of

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reality, their experiential
understanding of reality, the

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logical understanding of
reality.

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When you die, you die.
If you’re dead, you stay dead.

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And Paul is saying, I get that.
I understand that.

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I’m following your reasoning and
Christ was raised from the dead.

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So your understanding of
reality, even if it’s true 999

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times out of 1000, at the very
least we know that this one time

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it did happen.
And if it did happen that one

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time, then your understanding,
even if it’s 99.9% accurate, is

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not perfect.
That .1%, though it may seem

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negligible, is not because that
creates the difference between

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this is reality versus this is
how I understand reality.

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This is how I experience
reality.

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Why is this important?
If our hope is bound to a 99.9%

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understanding, then we may
resist, reject, oppose, ignore a

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.1% move of God that changes
everything.

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God may very well be at work,
but we reject it because it does

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not look like how we think it’s
supposed to look, how we need it

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to look.
If in Christ we have hope in

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this life only, if everything
that we are hoping God will do

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is all just bound to the here
and now, to our very temporal

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experience, and we are of all
people most to be pitied.

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For Paul it was we’re
sacrificing all this for

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nothing.
But as I started to say it, what

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hit me is another reason to be
pitied is almost the flip of

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that.
We have access to all this and

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we reject it.
So here’s my encouragement for

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you.
Take some time today to think

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about what realities and
understanding your hope is bound

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to.
How confident are you and your

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understanding that reality?
Are you humble enough to

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consider that you may feel 100%
but it may not be 100%?

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Are you humble enough to say
what if there is at least a .1%

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that things are not like I think
they are?

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And take all that to say, all
right God, I want to consider

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the possibility that not only
are you not denying me hope, but

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actually offering it.
But you may already be doing

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miraculous things that I might
be rejecting, ignoring, missing

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because my mind is locked into
this life only.

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And then look for them.
Have your eyes and ears open in

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a different way that’s not bound
to this life only and maybe

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maybe you’ll catch a glimpse of
hope in the midst of that.

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And if you do let somebody know.
So first Corinthians 1519 if in

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Christ we have hope in this life
only we are of all people most

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to be pity.
So Father God, we thank you that

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you are God and you are good,
and that what you’re inviting us

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to is not this life, only that
your goal for us and what should

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be a goal for us is not for this
life to be the thing, to be the

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best thing, to be the most
comfortable thing, to be the

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most clear thing.
That this life could be the

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opposite of all that.
And your will for us actually be

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accomplished because you are
inviting us to not life, life to

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the fullest, to the full extent,
to something eternal, to

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something bigger than us.
So we confess that we get locked

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in this life, only we get locked
to the here and now.

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Holy Spirit, help us to break
from that, even if just a

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smidge, so that we can catch a
glimpse of what is happening

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around us, the miraculous, the
amazing, the beautiful and

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restorative.
Let’s frame this holy name.

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Amen.