Friday, June 1, 2007

A Better Hope


Dear friends,

I have always loved to read. When I read, I become so engrossed that I literally “tune out” the world around me. Even as a young student in school, I would become so engrossed in my reading that I would neither see nor hear the entire class line up for lunchtime. Their favorite strategy was to repeatedly shout, “Earth to Jonathan, Earth to Jonathan,” until I tuned back into my surroundings.

Many of us do the same thing in our everyday lives. We become so engrossed in “our story” that we cannot see or hear anything else. We rise and fall in tune with our own characters and events – until our hope in life is completely dependent on the outcome of our story.


But this kind of hope always disappoints us in the end. People die, jobs are lost, relationships are destroyed, children grow up and start their own families, and friends move away. Even the best stories come to an end.


There’s a much bigger story, however, that God wants us to pay attention to
and it’s unfolding all around us. In this story, the hero and the enemy are clear, and there is only one hope which burns bright – and you and I are the bearers of that bright light to a dark and hopeless world.

In this greater story of creation, fall, redemption, judgment and glory, the only hope which does not disappoint is the hope of eternal salvation through faith in the saving work of Jesus the Christ. To hold this hope and this hope alone as the foundation of all of our stories is to experience a deep, abiding and unshakable joy and confidence in the One who loves us.


But such hope does not come cheaply. It comes first through the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross, and it comes secondly through our suffering – used by God to open our eyes and ears to the better hope he offers through Jesus Christ. Paul describes this hope in Romans 5:4-5:


4
And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation. 5Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5 Amplified Bible)

Keep in mind that Paul is writing to believers. Sometimes we confuse the outcome of our hope – which is certain – with the holding of hope
– which is developed through suffering, perseverance and character formation. There is often no other way than suffering to shake us loose from “our story” and into "God's story."

Once we understand the role of suffering in our lives – that God is calling us into a better hope
in which we will experience the love of God being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit – we will be able to regard our suffering with the mindset Paul describes in verse 3:

3
Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.

With this new mindset, we can re-enter our story with a looser grip on the outcome and a better hope in the One who has already written the final chapter.

Let’s pray together:


“Lord Jesus, thank you for the suffering that you endured for me
for all of us on the cross. Thank you for giving your Holy Spirit as the deposit and guarantor of our hope in you for eternal salvation.

Lord, we need your help. I need your help. My hope is too often shaken because I keep basing it in my story
so I have become disappointed, hurt, and sometimes bitter.

Please forgive me for getting lost in my story. O Lord, use this present suffering in my life – use whatever you need to use – to open my eyes and ears to the joyful and confident hope that is found in you alone. Amen.”

With a better hope,

Jonathan

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