Life can be so hard, and sometimes I think it'd be all too easy for me to become paralyzed by fear. I'm thinking watching the TV show Jericho with Josh wasn't the best idea right before bed this evening. It's a show about a post apocalyptic world and begins with the bombing of multiple U.S cities. Jericho is a small town in Kansas that becomes shut off from the rest of the country and the show depicts their struggle for survival after the fallout from the bombs. More then that though, the show dives into several different themes. Themes like mans true nature, the survival of the fittest, kill or be killed, you can't trust anyone, neighbors turning on neighbors, and without a government we can make our own rules. That's just to name a few. The show is well made and sucks the viewer right into the drama. It is also very stressful to watch and, in a word, depressing. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. It truly is a show that points not only to the total depravity of man, but also to the most desperate need every human has: hope.
I think this is true not just in shows like this though. Everyone everywhere has something or someone they place their hope in. In fact all cults, all religions, all ideas are centered on a hope of some kind. It doesn't matter if it's as big as politics or as small as wanting to eat ice-cream, everyone single human being understands hope. And everyone needs hope. It's those who think they've lost all hope that tend to end their lives themselves. Homestly without hope the ugliness of this world can seem pretty overwhelming. It's on this fundamental level I believe all humans can relate to one another, and I think it's pivotal.
Where then should our hope lie?
I've thought about this all night, and of course my answer is going to sound cliche. After all I'm a Christian, so of course I'm going to say our hope belongs in Jesus Christ. But I don't want that to be a cliche. I don't want those who don't know Christ to be immediately turned off by my answer. I say it not because I've been taught to say it, but because it's truth. And because I know how desperately the world needs hope: true hope, a LIVING hope.
In a world like Jericho where the hope of Christ is not presented in any way, I see people grasping at straws. I see people loosing compassion for fellow men and women around them, I see people denying reality, I see people reacting with fear, becoming subject to their own selfish impulses, and putting their needs above all others. I see mans depravity with all the shackles off, all restraints gone. And what I see terrifies me because it's a world very much like our own.
Wait a minute, I say to myself, why are you afraid?
Because the potential evil of man is scary, I respond.
But Jericho is a fictional story, and you're forgetting something, I argue back....
Then it hits me. No matter how similar Jericho is to the real world there is one major difference: Christ! We have Christ, sent to us by a loving Father, sealed to those believe in him by the Holy Spirit. It is He who makes all the difference. He may not ever come up in the fictional story of Jericho, but not so here and I praise God that we are never so hopeless as Jericho's portrayal of the world. God has not left us alone, but has intervened for us, despite us, so we can have hope.
Hope in what? Hope that this world isn't all there is for starters. Hope that by the grace and work of Chrsit we can begin to say no to our sinful nature and NOT EVER forget about things like love and compassion-- even if, God forbid, there is a nuclear fallout. Hope that we too can become like Christ and see God face-to-face. Hope that we, like this world and all it's falleness, are not left to our own devices and ultimate destruction, but can come before the throne of grace and find forgiveness there. Hope that our inheritance is heaven--an eternity with God--where sin, tears, suffering, ect. will be no more. And finally, as though the afore mentioned hopes weren't enough, hope that God will give us the strength to finish the race here on earth well, so that we can stand before him and hear him say, "well done, good and faithful servant."
It's this hope that I want to represent to the world. I've been called to be His salt, His light, and His hope bearer. So you see I can't curl up in a ball and hide away in fear. How can I proclaim boldy my hope one minute and then run and hide the next? The world so badly needs hope, and here I am, one of many, who knows where the only true hope can be found. It's not just one hope among many, it is THE ONLY hope. This is why I can't let myself be paralyzed by fear. God does not want me to hide His hope from the world. I've been called to be faithful, no matter the circumstance. And in the end may God's glorious hope shine from me, so that those seeking hope will find a LIVING hope in Jesus Christ!
