After taking a couple of weeks off of writing to live some life and take a little emotional inventory, I found that hope has been on my mind. The other night when I couldn’t sleep (thanks a lot, seasonal allergies) I spent some time contemplating what it would take to become a person of hope, rather than a person of blind optimism or crippling cynicism. 

I find my generation (myselbf included) tends toward an unfortunate cynicism. The cause? Well, global wars, political unrest, pandemics, natural disasters and impending climate change, late-stage capitalism, and a speed-of-light communication platform like social media to immediately face all of these issues at once does put a bit of a damper on our capacity for hope and optimism. 

But hope has never been for the weak. 

When I was younger, my parents would warn me not to “get my hopes up” about certain things, and this was an understandable precaution on their part so I would not be so deeply disappointed if things didn’t work out. 

But as Christians, we have the ultimate hope, don’t we? There is no “if things don’t work out” for us. Everything has already been worked out. All the above factors notwithstanding, we know how it will end! We know that Christ has redeemed a world beyond genocide of adults and unborn infants, beyond trade wars and violence, beyond storms and earthquakes, and far beyond our unique sufferings. 

That is not to dismiss the gravity and tragedy of any of these things, but rather to enforce the immense capacity for hope we all have. If Christ has already won, then the weight of the world is no longer on our shoulders. He is coming back, so the only question left is what we are to do with our time and talents while we wait for him? How great a hope we have in him! We don’t have to save the world. Only to do good and live faithfully in it. 

Get your hopes ridiculously high! Christ can only exceed them. The trick, I suppose, is to hope for heavenly things. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” So that begs the question… what is his will? What are things like in heaven? And this is the question the hopeful mind pursues. What is something that you hope for? Go out and be part of the realization of that thing, knowing it will never be perfected in this “mortal coil” but that we are not asked to perfect it. We are only asked to love God above all things (yes, even our pride and our precious politics) and to love our neighbors as ourselves. 

I hope you learn to hope again. To wait for the coming of his kingdom and believe it to be near. 

I hope you waste no more time “believing in yourself” and instead believe in the one that made you. Believe in his purpose over your potential. Believe in his mercy over your failure. 

I hope you find the world to be weightless, because Christ carried it all. That’s why his “yoke is easy, and his burden is light.” 

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Respond to this article (reply to this email, or comment below) for unique bonus content! Some things are better expressed in poetry, and hope, in my opinion, is one of them.