My Hope

What do I put my hope in?

14 min readJan 18, 2020

An essay about my source of everlasting hope; my fountain of eternal Hope. Note: This post is mostly a collection of Bible verses–in particular, the Bible verses that forms the essence of my undying hope.

Life is too short

People often have ambitions of things they want to achieve in this life. But I feel like it is too short to achieve anything of great significance. I reflect on the immense gift and ability to create that people have been bestowed with, yet our lifetimes are too short to accomplish great works of art and creation. It takes years to actually become masterfully good at something — and by the time we reach that point, we only have so much time left to do works of beauty. If we were to live for a thousand years, perhaps we could accomplish far more great works.

There are a lot of things I want to do. Books I want to read. Books that I want to write. New software that I want to write. Skills I want to master. Yet, time is incurably short. I would love to delve deep into many endeavors, but the shortness of human life means that there are only a few things we can do, and we have to prioritize and choose a few things to work on. One cannot help but imagine that people were meant to do so much more.

When I reflect on the shortness of life, it makes me realize the futility and truly temporal nature of everything we are doing here. Am I going to make everything be about this short life of mine?

No. Life is short and fleeting, and I want more. This world is not enough.

As the Bible says, our lives are so short in the big picture of things:

As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the God is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. (Ps 103:15–18)

My Great Hope

I believe in something greater. Some people might call me crazy, but I believe in God, and I believe in Christ, and I believe in promises of the Bible. The promises of the Bible in the book of Revelation (in particular, chapters 21 and 22) are what give me my hope for the future.

Ultimately, what Christ is about (and what faith in Christ is about), is not about life in this world (or just about living a good life in this world). It is a promise for the future. This is the good news. Beyond redemption from sin and reconciliation with God, the greatest good news is that there is another world — an eternal life in a new world that’s waiting for us.

One of the first ideas presented in the gospel is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This idea of a heaven is introduced explicitly for the first time in the New Testament, having only been alluded in the Old Testament / the Hebrew Bible. Chapter 21 of Revelation paints a beautiful picture of what this new world will look like.

Quoting the relevant portions of Revelation (21:1–8, 21:22–27, 22:1–5):

Then I saw ya new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And the who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and she will be my son.
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth swill bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

This is the most beautiful part of the Bible to me. The first passage in Revelation 21 is the passage of the Bible that gives me the greatest joy.

It is so beautiful that there will be no need of the light of a lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be our light. We will see him face to face, like in Genesis, and live with God, in pure and total communion, forever. God will walk with us. We will be with Him, once again — forever.

God will wipe every last tear away. There will be no sadness or pain anymore, for those things will have passed away. The promise enshrined in Revelation in incredible, beautiful, and true. It is what I put my hope in.

I look forward to eternal life with God. It is what gives me hope in this world.

The city that I yearn for is not a city on this Earth. The city look forward to is the new Jerusalem. That is the city I hope for, and wish to live in. And Jesus talks about how he has even have prepared “a room” for us, in this new city. Quoting from John 14 (another beautiful chapter), verses 1 to 11:

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

New Bodies

One other thing I find incredible is that Jesus and his apostles say that we ourselves will be recreated with new eternal, indestructible angelic bodies.

In Luke 20:34–38, Jesus says:

And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.”

In Philippians 3:20, Paul says:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform four lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

And, Paul also says in 2 Corinthians 5:

For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened — not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

This is all great. The Earth is like a “temporary tent” that will be destroyed at the end of the world. And after that, we will be resurrected in new heavenly angelic bodies that are eternal and indestructible.

Peace, Finally

One of things I find horrifying about this world is how full of violence it is. As We live in a world full of darkness and evil. Besides how cruel humans often are to each other, there’s animals too. Animals are so violent, and with predators their very sustenance depends on killing and consuming other animals. The whole way this world is set up is cruel. I don’t see much goodness in this state of affairs. I think the horror and brutality of “nature” is one of many signs of the brokenness of this world. And I don’t think think that the new heaven will have this sort of cruelty, if there are animals. Pain and destruction are of this world. The new creation must be free of it.

I find hope in the redemption of the current order of things in nature, in Isaiah 11:6, which says:

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

On Meaning, and Absurd Ideas

In this piece on The Atlantic, the philosopher Herbert Fingarette says: “I walk around often and ask myself, ‘What is the point of it all?’ There must be something I’m missing. I wish I knew.” This is someone who earlier in life, wrote a book called “Death” in which he emphatically proclaimed that “that fearing one’s own demise was irrational” and that when you die “there is nothing”. Later, at 97, close to the end, he couldn’t help but stare at the futility of the idea that there was nothing at all after death.

The most absurd idea is that all we came out of randomness. Somehow, people actually believe this. That everything we see comes out of randomness. It is absurd and unbelievable, when you actually reflect. There is a bottomless emptiness to that line of thinking. To actually believe in that, would make everything utterly devoid of meaning and purpose. It would amplify the depth of the hopelessness of this world. Why live in a random and meaningless world? Whatever the process of creation might have been, the thing that was driving it was certainly not randomness. We did not come from randomness. Let’s put that horrible idea in the dustbin of bad and foolish ideas. And this world certainly is not good enough. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. (13–15)
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. (16–19)
If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (32b)

Yes, if the dead are not raised, those who believe in the resurrection and follow Christ are most to pitied. If human lives truly were as short as it seems to be, the most sensible thing to do (as Paul says) would be to say “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”.

But, no, I believe in the resurrection of Christ, and in the resurrection of the dead. I believe in God. I believe in the Bible, in the promises of the Bible.

I believe in the miracles in the Bible, and that God is active in this world and can do anything he wishes in it.

I believe we have a real, active, personal God. Not a pantheistic pseudo-God who leaves the universe to its run itself. People like these kinds of pseudo-Gods because they are not actively involved in this world. But the true God is the supreme sentient being, and is involved in this world.

The real God has real plans for this world. God is going to make everything. And as it says in 1 Peter 5:7 “cast your anxieties on him” because he cares for you. God cares about us, and cares about this world.

This is what gives me hope.

Lastly, I want to wrap with a quote of 2 Peter 3 (NLT and ESV translation mix; emphasis mine):

First of all, I want you to know that in the last days men will laugh at the truth. They will follow their own sinful desires. They will say, “He promised to come again. Where is He? Since our early fathers died, everything is the same from the beginning of the world.” But they want to forget that God spoke and the heavens were made long ago. The earth was made out of water and water was all around it. Long ago the earth was covered with water and it was destroyed. But the heaven we see now and the earth we live on now have been kept by His word. They will be kept until they are to be destroyed by fire. They will be kept until the day men stand before God and sinners will be destroyed.
Dear friends, remember this one thing, with the Lord one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years are as one day. The Lord is not slow about keeping His promise as some people think. He is waiting for you. The Lord does not want any person to be punished forever. He wants all people to be sorry for their sins and turn from them. The day of the Lord will come as a robber comes. The heavens will pass away with a loud noise. The sun and moon and stars will burn up. The earth and all that is in it will be burned up.
Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, you should think about the kind of life you are living. It should be holy and God-like. You should look for the day of God to come. You should do what you can to make it come soon. At that time the heavens will be destroyed by fire. And the sun and moon and stars will melt away with much heat. We are looking for what God has promised, which are new heavens and a new earth. Only what is right and good will be there.
Dear friends, since you are waiting for these things to happen, do all you can to be found by Him in peace. Be clean and free from sin. You can be sure the long waiting of our Lord is part of His plan to save men from the punishment of sin. God gave our dear brother Paul the wisdom to write about this also. He wrote about these things in all of his writings. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Holy Writings also. They are destroying themselves as they do this.
And so, dear friends, now that you know this, watch so you will not be led away by the mistakes of these sinful people. Do not be moved by them. Grow in the grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Learn to know our Lord Jesus Christ better. He is the One Who saves. To him be the glory both now and to eternity. Let it be so.

This is such wonderful stuff. It reminds me of “Shine Jesus Shine”:

Lord, the light of your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness, shining
Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us
Set us free by the truth you now bring us
Shine on me, shine on me
Shine, Jesus, shine
Fill this land with the Father’s glory
Blaze, Spirit, blaze
Set our hearts on fire
Flow, river[s of living water], flow
Flood the nations with grace and mercy
Send forth your word
Lord, and let there be light.
Lord, I come to your awesome presence
From the shadows into your radiance
By the blood I may enter your brightness
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness
Shine on me, shine on me […]
As we gaze on your kingly brightness
So our faces display your likeness
Ever changing from glory to glory
Mirrored here may our lives tell your story
Shine on me, shine on me […]

Amen.