Hope deferred makes the heart sick

 Imagine the scene: The Rev Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. standing there, looking at into the eyes of the oppressed, downtrodden, those who have mourned, those who were broken, in despair, in search of hope – the mass staring back up to the one they were praying would give them a new dream…

Dr King knew that the dream of America is not and could never be, bound up in the hopes of man as such hopes are fleeting. Hope that heals is hope that is permanent - tattooed on the heart (or hand) so as never to be forgotten. So, when the Rev. Martin Luther King stood before the watching world to proclaim the end of legal discrimination against all people, he did so as one who had seen God’s righteousness enacted at the Cross, and was therefore hungry for righteousness in his own day. And because this reality of righteousness can come only from God Himself, Dr King, in his speech, cried out to the Lord with the words of the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming the coming of the Lords day.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness [saying:] Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. For every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together (Isaiah 40.3-5)

Dr King knew what the church must know, what the world must come to know: that our hunger and thirst for righteousness are only satisfied by and in Christ. This hunger must be our hope here and now – it must propel us to live out Jesus’ insane love. As Proverbs 13.12 states, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

If our hope is not in Christ because our hunger and thirst are for the savory tastes of society as opposed to the Savior of society, it is certain our hearts will be made sick. 

Abyss of Hunger

Hungry? Hunger in today's age is an abyss - it is all around and yet so many of us don't really know what it means truly to hunger - we are confused or blinded due to its overwhelming presence.

Should we hunger? can hunger be positive? If you have ever played a sport you would think that hunger is essential - coaches always shouting out the inquiry "ARE YOU HUNGRY?"

So what do we hunger and thirst for…Better yet, who? Is it God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – who quenches our hunger and thirst or do we go elsewhere? Is our appetite for the Creator or do we hunger and thirst for worldly food?

These days it is easy to be a fast-food consumer of God, but this type of consumption does not satisfy the depth of our soul’s hunger and thirst. People who are hungry and thirsty are in dire need; they will die if not helped. Such is the passion of a disciple of Christ. The ultimate source of righteousness is God Himself. This is who we must hunger and thirst for – it is a relational hunger at its core. We must know and love God if we are to understand righteousness.

The author of Hebrews helps us realize what it means to hunger and thirst for God. Read Hebrews 12.1-2. For those who call themselves a follower of Christ, our hunger and thirst can only be satisfied through a deep longing for Jesus. When this becomes our reality, our hearts, our character, our being,  and our response to life is in light of His response to us, and this is not always easy nor does it often times lack pain and suffering, but we are called to respond to life as our Savior did, with joy and praise!  


The language of the Bible is interactive, calling for a participation in the Being and act of God. With this in mind then, we must ask: Is today’s church living out Christ’s incarnational performance thereby promoting first, our being in Christ so as to then establish our own act (purpose)? Or in its quest for the “unchurched,” is the church subtly promoting the mind and heart of William Ernest Henley expressed through his poem Invictus:

It matters not how strait the gate,/ How charged with punishments the scroll,/ I am the master of my fate,/ I am the captain of my soul.[1] 

For Henley, and much of society, life is something to be conquered. The term Invictus is Latin for “unconquerable” or “undefeated.” The point being drawn out here is the between a life lived by a person whose purpose is derived by them, they are the master of their own fate, the captain of their own soul contrasted with one who is “more than a conqueror” due solely to the fact that their being participates in Christ’s own life, death, and resurrection because it is Christ who is the captain of their soul (Psalm 73.25-28).

Is the purpose of the church today the pursuit of the consumer crown or the pursuit of the crucified crown?

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[1] William Ernest Henley, Invictus, 1888.