Hope

The concept of hope has been on my mind a lot the past couple years. Especially this past year. Seeing the brokenness of families, of our government institutions, seeing the anger of broken men, seeing children growing up with absolutely no dreams, no hope....it is hard for ME to have any hope a lot of days. For those of us who are deep feelers especially, it is really, really hard to feel deep compassion and not feel deep despair at the same time.

But God keeps whispering "hope" to me...at the same time that I've been feeling despair like never before, I've also felt more hopeful than ever before, almost within minutes of each other. Because of what Christ has done, I have hope that can rescue me from the despair. Out of all the beliefs in all the world, Christ is the only God who ever made himself man so that he could feel our despair, weep with us in it, and then die so we would not have to stay in it. With his death and resurrection, He defeated despair and the evil that causes it - and one day he will return and make all things as they should be. Even NOW, he is working through his Spirit in us and all around us to advance His goodness and His justice, to spread His Kingdom. He is beauty and glory and light, and he brings joy and excitement and HOPE. He is the answer to the kids all around me who have no hope. We can have hope because he HAS changed everything, and is changing everything even now. Rather than letting despair win, we can tell the kids in our schools and our friends and our neighbors that they can dream and they can HOPE.

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope." (Romans 15:13)

Thanks to Tim Willard for his devotional today that spoke a lot to this theme:

"We are children of the Wind...Lord Jesus, Let us not give in to a culture of cynicism and nonchalance, but recapture the romance, glory, and joy of our faith - belief that flies us home, belief that sails us into the beyond."