WHAT IS REAL HOPE?

You can see from the headlines that hope is in short supply.  Businesses are reeling in the aftermath of shutdowns.  The Wall Street Journal reports that, “U.S. Companies Lose Hope for Quick Rebound From Covid-19.”  It is not just businesses.  We are all experiencing a side effect of C19 and this global pandemic.  There is a less obvious toll the coronavirus and shelter-in-place orders are having on mental health. COVID-19 takes toll on mental health; Suicide rate doubles.   Beyond the headlines is the research.  One in five feeling ‘hopeless’ because of pandemic.  48% of Americans are hopeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.  As the coronavirus lockdown is lifted one in 5 are feeling hopeless, according to the charity the Mental Health Foundation.

Pew research did a piece,  “Looking to the Future, Public Sees an America in Decline on Many Fronts.” According to the poll; Americans predict a weaker economy, a growing income divide, a degraded environment and a broken political system.  By the way that poll was taken months before the death of George Floyd and the Pandemic.

Then there is the civil unrest blowing up across the nation which, we might say, boils down to a sense of hopelessness.  Victor B. Dickson is president and CEO of the Safer Foundation, a nonprofit helping those with criminal records become employed.  He said in an article in the Daily Herald that, “Rage of the poor is rooted in hopelessness. “He says that if we are told that we have no value, if their our lives don't matter, it doesn't matter what we do.   

We’re trying to find solutions in politics, re-education of the public, in change of policy and sometimes in canceling people and organizations who aren’t on the same page.  It is what we do because it is all we have.  It is all we have because we’ve yet to find the GOD STORY. 

The God story today is real hope.  Where does real hope come from and what difference does it make?  The hope chapter, Romans 5, in the Bible says:  (NIV)

¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we^[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we^[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

We have dismantled our worth and consequently our hope by our enmity with God.  We’ve lost our sense of value for ourselves and others.  Yeah, that sounds like a hopeless mess to me!  But there in the hope chapter, right in verse one it gives us the secret to real hope.  It says, we’ve been justified so we have peace with God.  Thus, we have access to his grace and so we have all the HOPE we could ever celebrate; a real hope, hope of the glory of God. 

But it goes further, it says (Michelle paraphrase) Yeah we’ve got all this excellent hope but wait there’s more!  we also glory in our sufferings.   We glory in our suffering?!  Think about that.  We glory in dealing with Covid 19 that attacks our health and economy?  We glory in the racial tensions that shame our nation, hurt our friends of color and have resulted in riots and unrest.  We glory in the doctor’s diagnosis, the pile of unpaid bills, the broken heart?!  The Bible says, yes.  We can glory even in these harsh circumstances and unsurety because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  In other words.  We endure these things because we are at peace with God and have access to His grace, His glory so we become unstoppable (perseverance), and that endurance in perseverance becomes who we are (character).  Who we are, our character, is a people saturated in hope, real hope, eternal hope, unshakable, unmovable, indominable hope.

That is some serious hope.  So you say, “Wow, how can I get me some of that?!”  The hope chapter lays it out plain and simple, “…through our Lord Jesus Chris.”   It is He who purchased our justification and He who gives us access through faith to this hope.   

And hope does not put us to shame, it doesn’t disappoint.  Hope doesn’t fail; because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us; the hope chapter says.   What that says to me is that I know my life matters.  I know I am loved in a way deeper and stronger than any force in the universe.  I ride out this journey through the joyful and tearful and His love is there.  I am at peace with God and I have hope.  That hope does not put us to shame.  As a brilliant quote from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel says, “Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right …then it's not yet the end.” 

HOPE!