How to share real hope

We must share a hope that is free from falsity and cynicism, a hope that can only come from the gospel.

I guess most of us would say that the more we think about time the less we understand it. However, the way God has organised the world and human beings means that although we are time-bound, we can still move around within it.

Thus we have memory, a wonderful gift. This enables us to examine time which has passed us, and to recall events and persons. We can examine them and form judgements or rejoice or be sad or guilty. We can even take appropriate action. Memory is, of course, fallible and incomplete, fortunately for us. If we remembered everything we would scarcely be able to function. Forgetting is also a wonderful gift from God. The business about always examining the past in order to be released from it is not always the path of wisdom in my view.

Then what about imagination? Once more, in our minds we can leave the present and dream of other times and places. We remember only the past, but imagination takes us also into the future. Imagination gives us the wonderful capacity to choose between futures – to see consequences and so to be responsible for our actions. Of course it can also be frustrating or foolish when we dream of the impossible or the plain wrong – allowing our minds to enter an imaginary world where we do not belong, for example. Not for nothing does the Bible tell us “whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil 4:8).

There are some thoughts which I should never have had. There are many I should not have dwelt on or allowed to become part of my mental furniture. For the world of our thoughts is an area for Christ to be Lord, taking “every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). It is after all from the heart that sin comes. It starts there.

Imagination is allied to hope. Hope is an indispensable part of human existence. It allows us to project ourselves into the future and to plan our time in accordance with goals. It functions as part of what gives purpose to life. Hope keeps us going when times are hard, because hope tells us that times will be better, that we still have a future. Just as imagination can be a trap, so too can hope. Without it we die spiritually; yet false hopes lose touch with reality and create disappointment and even cynicism. Cynicism is loss of faith in the future. It corrodes hope and it corrodes the human spirit because it destroys faith and the future.

The trouble is, the cynic is often right. Indeed, usually right. Our hopes do deceive us. The experience of going to the ball is never as great as the anticipation. I am told that even winning a gold medal at the Olympics can leave the triumphant athlete in dark despair in the knowledge that the moment of glory for which so much had been given is now past for ever. The winners’ names will soon be forgotten; the triumph becomes a vague memory and the bright gold tarnished.

The cynic is also correct about human nature and human capacity. The extraordinary euphoria which has surrounded the new Federal Government will not last. The euphoria is a foolish utopianism. Even now, however, hard decisions are being taken which will offend people; mistakes are being made; inadequacies of administration and leadership will become apparent. We will have the unedifying spectacle of those who spoke up most hopefully being the greatest critics of a government which is merely human after all. The greatest foolishness of modern political philosophies of left or right is belief in the innate goodness of human beings and the possibility of the kingdom of God on earth.

And yet a cynical society is a diseased society. We cannot live like that. We must have our hopes. Cynicism corrupts all it touches and is particularly bad for young people.

That is why the gospel has such power to help us live well here and now. It assumes human sinfulness. It agrees that we cannot build the kingdom of God on earth by the political process or social engineering. It is clear-eyed about our weaknesses. But at the same time it shows us a Lord who is above all time and yet was born in time. It shows us a Lord whose promises may be absolutely relied upon. It shows us a Lord who will never forsake us, even to the point of death and then through it. It shows us a Lord who transcends our lives here and promises fulfilment in the age to come. It shows us a Lord who is our good and true hope.

Our society needs this hope to save it from utopianism or from cynicism. Part of the whole business of Connect09 is to enable us to re-connect with our society in a way which brings real, life-transforming hope to lives with false hopes or no hope at all. Will you join me in sharing the gospel of hope? 

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