The Power of Christian Hope

Has there ever been a time when we as citizens of the world needed hope as we do today? Yes, I’m sure those who fought the wars of the twentieth century needed hope. Those who sought to lead our countries through the Cold War needed hope. And those who struggle to re-start their businesses and those who face unemployment need hope. In the face of the Covid-19 shut down and sending our kids back to school we all need hope of better days.

But many thinkers assert that hope is vague and naïve. In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, Thomas Homer-Dixon attempts to win us back from despair by encouraging a hopeful attitude toward this current crisis. Before explaining why he thinks hope is essential to inspire imagination and creativity, he describes some of its detractors. One group “of critics argues that hope is a dangerously passive response to the world’s challenges because it distracts us, keeps us from acting to change the world and thus diminishes our agency.” One detractor states, “hope is in fact, a curse, a bane…a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency; it means you are essentially powerless.” It is “a secular way of keeping us in line.”

But “psychologists have shown that few of us can flourish physically and mentally without hope.” And yet in the whole article Homer-Dixon gives only a passing and dismissive reference to a heavenly hope, i.e. A Christian hope.

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Christian hope is neither passive nor powerless. Such hope does not operate in the believer’s life as lonely longing or wishful thinking. It is allied with faith and love. As Paul reminds us in 1 Cor 13:13, “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love.”

Faith provides the anchor for the expectation that hope brings. How so? Christian faith is in the Almighty, eternal Triune God of the universe. He is one who created all things, who flung the stars into space and carefully crafted the wings of a butterfly. He is the one who established the laws of physics, who formed the space/time continuum. This faith in the Creator-God enabled scientists as varied as Newton, Galileo, and Watts to think God’s thoughts, as it were, after him and thus discover amazing truths about the universe. They thought outside the box of superstition and ignorance. The reformers imagined a form of government that was not resting in the absolute power of monarchs but in the participation of citizens. And so we have democracy.

Inspired Christian hope energizes the imagination. For God is the one who is able to do “abundantly more than we can ask or think.” God stretches our imagination. As Isaiah points out “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar…run…walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31). Why will they be so active? Because their faith is in the LORD.

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While faith anchors our hope in apparent impossibilities, love provides the energy and impetus. The Christian is charged by Jesus Christ Himself to “love your neighbour as yourself.” As the second greatest commandment the outworking of this command must flow from a believer’s life if he is sincere in his desire to obey his Master. “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us“ (1 Peter 2:12). As a loving assembly, God’s people become salt and light in a community because of which [men] see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). “Hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5). And that love loves us to look around at the needs of our neighbours, to consider what can be done to bless our community.

As a result being motivated by love for others, Christians have been in the historic forefront of establishing hospitals, clinics, schools, universities, literacy programs, rescue missions, and a host of other institutions and programs.

Now abides faith, hope and love. Faith in God provided the can-do-spirit. Hope causes the imagination to soar. Love provides the energy to press on with projects for the flourishing of mankind.

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(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. Further articles, books, and stories at: http://www.countrywindow.ca Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ––)

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