Don't get your hopes up

It is a phrase that we often hear.  We audition for something? "Don't get your hopes up."  We go to a job interview?  "Don't get your hopes up."  We turn in a paper?  "Don't get your hopes up."  

Hope has been on my mind a lot recently.  I am waiting to hear about a new life opportunity, and the word hope has been flying around our house a lot.  My husband will say, "Maybe you'll hear something today."  To which I reply, "Meh, I'm just trying not to get my hopes up."  

But then I went to class yesterday.  The members of this class were reflecting on their theological experiences during this past season of lent and holy week.  A good friend of mine brought up how much she enjoyed a sermon from a friend who said that the tomb was not empty.  The tomb was full of hope.  I didn't really give it a second thought until I was laying, awake, in bed revisiting the issue.  

I think, in general, hope is something to be avoided.  If a person has a sense of hope, and whatever was being hoped for is not fulfilled, the person experiences something similar to loss.  So should we really deny ourselves the experience of hope just to avoid the possibility of experiencing loss?  That's the real question that has been on my mind.  

What I know is that for my soul... my spirit... I cannot function without hope.  I have hope that there is something beyond this life, with all its hopes and losses, and that something is worth the wait.  I have this hope that comes from the tomb that is empty, yet full.