Hope

Hope is a feeling that something desirable is likely to happen.  But why do we hope, and for what do we hope?  The simple answer is we hope because we long for something. We long to be in the place God had originally intended for us, before the fall. We long on a daily basis for love, acceptance, or other basic human needs and wants, but that is all a cover for what we truly want. We want God. Plantinga says “We human beings want God even when we think that what we really want is a green valley or a good time from our past or a loved one.”

 Occasionally, we feel happy with people around us, but we are never completely satisfied. “Our inconsolable secret” says C.S. Lewis “is that we are full of yearnings, sometimes shy and sometimes passionate, that point us beyond the things of earth to the ultimate reality of God.” Never on this earth will we fill the perfect joy and completeness that we so desire.

So for now we hope for that day to come. That day when all the suffering and pain will end, that day when our longing and desires fulfilled and satisfied beyond our imagination. But we must have an active hope.  “Without costly action, hope can soften into sentimentality. With costly action, hope can harden into reality” How passionately do you live your life for Christ? Will people see the hope of the world without suffering and pain that you can see because God has promised it? Are your convictions strong enough to change even one person’s unbelieving heart? Martin Luther King Jr. was able to see a country without racism and convinced others with his speech that relied on his faith in God. What visions of peace can you see?

“Shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight – a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied.  And natural gifts fruitfully employed, all under the arch of God’s love.” This is what we long for. This is what we hope for. This is what we know will come again. This is what we as Christians are to spread around the world. The hope that God has given us through Jesus’s death and resurrection that there will be a world that is so perfect that even the greatest love story will pale in comparison to the joy, you will feel there.