Hope Different
“When you let your heart go after those great things, you find that you are a small person in a great ancient story. And that your life, however you may be living it, with the particular gifts and location and place you are, it doesn’t matter what the particulars are, it’s the purpose [that matters]. So I want to encourage you to hope different.”
Whether the world is actually getting more broken and dark than it has been in the past or if instead I am simply far more aware of the depravity of the world due to our highly connected internet age, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is I am constantly faced with tragedy, injustice, terrorism, and sickness. Evil seems to surround me no matter how hard I ignore it or dilute it with escapism and cheap entertainment. I am guilty of putting my head in the sand and not engaging with the suffering of those around me. It seems at times if I allow my heart to open even a little bit to mourn with those who are mourning the flood gates will burst open and the weight of the world will crash in like an unrelenting tidal wave. It is easier to block out the hard things and keep scrolling through my news feed looking for the mind numbing pleasantries.
It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Ecclesiastes 7:2–4
Why is sorrow better than laughter? For by sadness of face, the heart is made glad. This is what God said is true, though it can be quite hard to reconcile with our own perceptions of suffering and what is good. I can’t provide an exegetical explanation of this text, but I know from my own experience when things are good my thoughts are not often on God. I pass from one fleeting moment of happiness to the next without much care for anything. Even worse yet, the sources of these happy moments all too often have diminishing returns. It’s been said that today’s new treasure is tomorrow’s garage sale item. But Jesus is the bread of life, the water that quenches our thirst forever. Jesus does not have a diminishing return of joy.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:3–5
If God is the source of true, lasting, ultimate joy than we want to be where we get the most of Him. But if we get the most of Him when we need Him most, do we still want to be in that place? Are we willing to be in need? Are we willing to suffer and mourn? Our hope is in Christ alone, but if we have no need to hope in anything but our self sufficient selves what do we gain?
Hope is not a feeling, it is an action. We actively choose to have hope and we actively choose what we place hope in. Like Hawthorne says in the video above, we can hope in our favorite sports team winning; hope our netflix choice for the evening will make us laugh. We can hope in diplomacy and political candidates. We can hope in science, medicine, technology, etc. But none of these will deliver us from the tidal wave of darkness that fills the world.
When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:54–58
“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only hope for this world, but we are able to hope in that day of redemption with confidence knowing He will indeed be exalted among the nations! We can hope in confidence knowing our labor is not in vain. Let us hope differently than the rest of the world who cannot hope with confidence. Let us open the flood gates and allow ourselves to be broken by the sorrow and pain in the world because it is this place that we will be near to God. There our hearts will align with His heart. Our desires will be His desires. No longer will we have room for the fleeting diminishing trinkets when we are burdened for the lost, the broken and the needy. But we will have hope, and this different hope will affect how we pray, what we do, how we spend our money. This different hope will shine brightly in the darkness and maybe someone will even ask us to give a reason for this different kind of hope we have. (1 Peter 3:15)
