Having Hope in a Hopeless World

Hope is believing that good will win! PLUS: My one area of hopelessness, hope exemplified and explained, and Revelation 21:3-4, 6-7

If hope were a currency, a lot of us would be broke.

I see it all around me: Despair. Depression. Doom and gloom.

Hopelessness.

Especially in my own generation, but it’s across the board. A true pandemic with disastrous results. Despite all the promises of innovation that are supposed to make us happy… a lot of us are unhappy. We are fed lies, shown things we don’t have but want, and are increasingly isolated. And our access to the world means we more than ever are painfully aware that so much is bad.

Hopelessness.

I, however, am naturally a hopeful person. I’m Mr. Light-at-the-End-of-the-Tunnel. I said it’s my chief superpower when asked about my greatest strength in a job interview just yesterday. The glass is half-full. My other religion, besides Christianity, is Optimism.

Only rarely have I not been able to see a bright side. I am certainly saddened and angry at how certain things turned out in my life, but I’m usually good at not letting that consume me. Usually.

As my wife pointed out to me in all her wisdom, these days I’ve found myself battling finance-related hopelessness. I juggle a variety of jobs and none of them add up to a number that I’m truly comfortable with. We survive, but aren’t where I’d prefer to be. I’m constantly torn between getting a “real job” and hustling in self-employment. I don’t consider myself greedy—I do not need to be a millionaire by any means. But I get very stressed at the numbers in the bank account. They feel too uncertain for my taste.

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

I have dreams of more education, adventures, publishing endeavors, business expansions… and everything seems to cost money that I don’t have. I get too much in my head about slightly large purchases. There are nights when it’s hard to sleep as I focus on these troubles. I’m prone to bemoan my sad state—and bemoan the terrible, terrible job market.

Please don’t take this as a sob story from me—I’m just being vulnerable that I, a pretty optimistic guy, still haven’t mastered hopefulness in every area.

Cracked Skulls, Expositions, and a Call Toward Hope

So I write today to encourage not just you, but me as well.

We are now in part six of seven in our series on Christian virtues. Last time, we said you gotta have “faith.” Today, we add to our collection of virtues one of my favorites, “hope.”

---

I recently published: “Could your faith survive ‘Disclosure Day’? What if aliens were real?” on Denison Forum

Listen to this episode on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, our website, or your favorite podcast player

---

Hope is multifaceted and complex, but at its core, it’s about confidence in things unseen, where last week’s virtue of faith is about confidence in someone unseen (an insight brought to you by Dr. Alan Noble in To Live Well).

Hope is the choice and habit of seeing a brighter tomorrow, to realize that goodness will outlast the bad, that the troubles of this world are temporary. It’s rooted in a belief in Resurrection and that God will one day make right all that has been done wrong.

Hope is exemplified well in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 by the Apostle Paul:

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

As described here, we can see that hope is about where we put our focus. Our energy goes not into the now, but into the future. The far future. That which is promised to us through faith. What we do with hope is prioritize the permanent over the impermanent.

Hope, to be very clear, is not a denial that bad things happen. And it’s not a way to avoid feelings.

Weep, as Christ our Savior wept. Mourn with those who mourn—as Jesus specifically commanded in the Sermon on the Mount. Cry out in frustration to God, as the Psalmist did. Bring your burdens to your Christian family and to your Lord. All our emotional reactions to what we experience in life are valid, and there are many appropriate ways to express them.

How Christians Can Heal from Trauma - Mary DeMuth

Yet the virtue of hope resists the world’s pull to spotlight all that’s gone wrong.

And Christian hope, by the way, also resists the temptation to have hope placed in anything but God. Hope is not found in politicians. Not in programs. Not in technology. Our hope isn’t even found in churches—I mean the human institutions that we’ve set up. Hope is only fulfilled in Christ.

While we can and should advocate for good in our temporary world, for this world does matter, hope ultimately is found in the Resurrection. That’s when things will actually be made right. And permanently so.

Hope reframes our priorities and helps us persevere when things get challenging. Hope is the antidote to the despair-ridden world we inhabit, that wants to ensnare us to think of our momentary troubles, or that doing good has no advantage, or that we are better off staying alone in bed instead of pursuing hard but rewarding things.

Revelation 21 paints a beautiful picture of our future hope that we would all do well to reflect on:

“I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. …To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.’”

-Revelation 21:3-4, 6-7

We don’t know and can’t know how it’s all going to turn out in our lifespans. Or in our children’s life spans. Or their children’s. Maybe the world is on its last leg or maybe it has 1,000 years more. But just because we don’t see the path from A to Z, doesn’t mean there isn’t one. We may not see how good could possibly come from anything we face. But that’s what makes hope so radical.

How to Suffer Well with Fortitude

It’s a stubborn commitment to know good is coming, even when we are helpless and clueless. It’s a commitment to know in our hearts that somehow things will work out.

As Dr. Noble so eloquently puts it,

‘Somehow’ is the language of hope. ‘Somehow’ defies the finality of the world.

In whatever span of life we have left, don’t waste it by adopting despair. Energize all of your days left by choosing hope. Recognize that “somehow,” good will win. It will. That vision of Revelation 21 will come to fruition.

Have hope. You will never regret it.

Have hope,

Jake Doberenz

---

Thanks for reading Smashing Idols. Please share this publication with others!