Awe and hope
Awe and hope floods over me as I watch the launch of the Parker Solar Probe. The boosters erupt in fire, and a massive rocket lifts into the sky. Humankind has done this. We have mastered enough physics and enough of the unknown to fly a probe through space to investigate a star, our sun.
Another wave of awe washes over me: the human drive to explore, to discover, to continue to wonder and to seek out the mysteries of the universe, is alive and well. This, for me, is also a clear sign of hope.
No matter how horrible everything else may seem in the world, the human spirit can thrive. We can make the world a better place. We can lift up each other and plow through hardships. We can learn and change and grow. Hope is the fuel in our rockets.
Hold on to hope
A very precious fuel.
So precious, in fact, that I’m learning how to fight to hold on to it. I’m done with letting the world steal my hope. And who better to go to for help with hope, than Jesus who defeated death itself? “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance,” Jesus reminds his disciples in John 10:10.
In the last year, I’ve taken to memorizing bits of Scripture to strengthen my hope. One of my favorites is Lamentations 3:24, which reads “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” Repeating the words comforts me when I hear about shootings, natural disasters, wars, famine, and all the other bad news with which the media bombards us. When faced with what’s happening in the world, hope is clearly a decreasing commodity.
Or at least an ignored one.
The facts of hope
Which brings me to Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, a book by Hans Rosling.
If you think the world is a mess, READ THIS BOOK. It will bring you hope. It will bring you perspective. It will educate you about the reality of human experience around the world. It presents facts that media doesn’t report, because as we all know, headlines have to bleed to lead. In this book, Rosling outlines the ten human instincts that distort how we look at the world. Most importantly, he gives solid evidence that the world is NOT getting worse as most of us think, but that, instead, slow and steady progress occurs. Rosling also points out that there is still much room for improvement, but by confronting our distorted worldviews, we can then put our best efforts where they can do the most good.
THAT would be awesome, don’t you think?
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