"For many months, we've been teased, even derided for talking about hope. But we always knew that hope is not blind optimism. It's not ignoring the enormity of the tasks ahead or roadblocks that stand in our path. It's not sitting on the sidelines or shirking from a fight. Hope is that thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us if we have the courage to reach for it and to work for it and to fight for it."
-Senator Barack Obama (victory speech at the Iowa Caucus)
-Senator Barack Obama (victory speech at the Iowa Caucus)
I wanted to post this quote not for political reasons, but because it is a beautiful statement on the aspect of hope. It shows how hope is not something that you sit around and wait for. It is not passive, but an active element in our lives if we truly wish to follow our hopes. It is not sitting idly by and saying, "I hope that one day these terrible things will change." It is following your hopes in order to change the world.
As Christians, we sometimes get get stuck in a rut of hope. We hope for heaven and we hope for the day when we don't have to worry about the fallen and broken nature of this world. And while that is true, we must also have hope that God wishes to establish his kingdom here and have the hope that he can use us as his instruments in order to bring about love, joy, and peace in this dark world. We do not simply sit around and lazily hope, but we must use that hope to spur us on to do amazing things for God. We act because we hope and we hope because we act.
In The Shawshank Redemption Andy Dufrense, after escaping form prison, writes a letter to his friend Red and says, "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and n
o good thing ever dies." As Christians, we have the greatest hope ever. And we cannot ever let that hope die. Instead we must bring hope to a hopeless world and let our hope shine out of us every second of every day.
The writer of Hebrews puts it beautifully when he says in 10:23-24:
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."
As Christians, we sometimes get get stuck in a rut of hope. We hope for heaven and we hope for the day when we don't have to worry about the fallen and broken nature of this world. And while that is true, we must also have hope that God wishes to establish his kingdom here and have the hope that he can use us as his instruments in order to bring about love, joy, and peace in this dark world. We do not simply sit around and lazily hope, but we must use that hope to spur us on to do amazing things for God. We act because we hope and we hope because we act.
In The Shawshank Redemption Andy Dufrense, after escaping form prison, writes a letter to his friend Red and says, "Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and n
o good thing ever dies." As Christians, we have the greatest hope ever. And we cannot ever let that hope die. Instead we must bring hope to a hopeless world and let our hope shine out of us every second of every day.The writer of Hebrews puts it beautifully when he says in 10:23-24:
"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."
May we be a people who hold unswervingly to our hopes and may we live them out every single day.
4 comments:
great thoughts on hope. thanks for sharing.
Hope should be something that inspires us to help this world, not something that we use to ignore it while we daydream about Heaven.
Right on.
p.s. - Supposedly you didn't mean this to be all that political, but Barack Obama has a really great message of hope and unity that I think this country really needs right now. I love the guy and I really hope he is our next president.
Where you at, man?
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