To Light the Fire of Hope
As FBB blog readers, you probably already know that Faith Beyond Belief has set aside 2020 as a year of hope. And it seems to me that considering recent events (Corona Virus anyone?), nothing could be more fitting.
“But,” someone may ask, “Who gave FBB the authority to designate a year of hope?” That’s easy, Jesus did in the Great Commission (Mat. 28:19-20, Acts 1:8). But perhaps the best summary of our mandate to announce hope in this year of trial (and all other years) is the oft-quoted I Peter 3:15, “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (Italics added). But do this with gentleness and respect.”
So, as you can see, all Christians are mandated to live their lives in hope because God knows hope is transferable. Human beings are social creatures, all of us are influenced by whatever is going on around us. If one person yawns, we all yawn. If one person says it’s too cold, we all get the shivers. And if one person says, “There’s no hope,” it won’t be long before everyone around them is depressed.
A lot of people seem to be giving up on life these days, and because depression is transferrable, there’s a lot of it going around. But Christians live in opposite town. We know that hope is just as transferable as any other emotion. It’s time, I say, and maybe past time, to take full advantage of the transferability of hope. God did not give us our hope in Christ as a treasure to be wrapped in a napkin and buried deep in our most private treasure chamber. Not at all. Our hearts are not lock boxes. They are to be channels through which God’s hope is poured into other lives.
Reread I Peter 3:15 and you will see that if you live in hope others will seek to understand why, and how. They will seek reasons to counter the hopelessness by which they are surrounded. Make no mistake, apart from faith in Christ there is no other lasting hope available to humans. False hopes such as philosophy, politics, science, religion, materialism and sexuality can maintain a pretense of solidity for awhile, but because they are false they are all finally destructive, and most people eventually see through them. When the mask slips and false hope is exposed, people are faced with two choices. Either they indulge some measure of despair, or they react with false bravado, desperately doubling down on the thing by which they’ve already been betrayed.
“Jesus Christ, breaking through the fog and leading me to the heretofore unknown experience of a clear, bright day, is a video that plays in my head on an endless loop. The redemption of my soul was like a seed planted in secret that grew to be a great tree bearing fruit that tasted a lot like hope!”
Frankly, I know how this works because I remember how before I was a Christian I lived in quiet despair. It was a seemingly endless drag that remains front-of-mind to this day and to some degree still fuels my zeal for Christ. Jesus Christ, breaking through the fog and leading me to the heretofore unknown experience of a clear, bright day, is a video that plays in my head on an endless loop. The redemption of my soul was like a seed planted in secret that grew to be a great tree bearing fruit that tasted a lot like hope!
Which in my mind always raises the question, how do I take this wonderful hope I received from Christ and spread it around? A partial answer may be found by asking a further question. What happened to take me from the hopelessness of a self-imposed prison of false ideas about the world to living in the great hope of a life in harmony with the plan of God? What did others do to move me to faith? If I/we can understand these things I am sure we can count on many who will respond as I did.When I consider this part of my story, what I remember is that Christians were notable in their desire to serve me. For years I was homeless, endlessly thumbing my way around the Canadian countryside. At the time (late ‘60s and ‘70s), hitch-hiking was not frowned on as it is today. No laws forbade it and a whole generation of Canadians relied on the kindness of strangers to get around.
In those days Christians stood out because they constituted by far the largest percentage of people who would pick me up. Moreover, they alone would go the extra mile to help me in my quest to get places. Sometimes, they would even help me load my not-small duffle-bag, backpack, and guitar (everything I possessed). They would ask if I was comfortable and would occasionally feed me. Bear in mind that due to my lifestyle choices my personal hygiene was sub-optimal, and I was aware that serving me was for them an unpleasant experience. Nevertheless, at no time—ever—did any Christian mention my inability to live up to the finer points of human courtesy. That spoke to me. These guys were different, and I knew it.
Another thing. They spoke with me as equals. There was no indication they looked down on me as a person of low status. They were polite. They were accepting. They were interested in talking with me. They smiled. They were kind. I often wonder, now, if our failure to share the Gospel with others is because we lack these attitudes when we interface with outsiders. Hmmm…
Which brings up something else. They truly believed that their worldview was the correct one, and they were ready to talk about it. They responded to my concerns and corrected my errors, and never stopped loving me. Their confidence shone through their words, perhaps because a lot of their words were from Scripture passages they had memorized. Looking around the Church now-a-days, I sometimes wonder how we lost that confidence. Are we victims of Internet distractions? Do we suffer from a self-imposed busyness that excludes preparation time for deep conversations with strangers? I wish I could restore that lost confidence to the Church. It would help us so much!
All in all, those unnamed and unnumbered members of the body of Christ are fondly remembered. They brought light into my dark life and, ultimately, each of them will be credited for an assist on the goal of my salvation. They were delighted to share their light and fire, but, like a damp log thrown on a roaring bonfire, it took a while for me to catch flame. Thankfully, God sent a veritable army of believers who sparked me spiritually too many times to count. The flame finally caught in my heart and I became a part of that bonfire myself, sharing my fire with others. This, I believe, is how hope is passed to others. But before I wrap this up I must point out an amazing paradox. Hope isn’t something to be pursued for its own sake. It becomes increasingly real as we transmit it to others. Those motorists who picked me up had a hope that was in stark contest to the hopeless world around me. And as they talked with me about it I could see the light grow in their eyes. I watched them. I listened to them. Eventually I heard them. Dear Christian brothers and sisters, people are watching us, hoping to see something in us. They are listening, hoping to hear something from us. If you talk with them your own hope must inevitably grow.
So, what do we do with this information? It’s simple. Like the Boy Scouts of old we need to be prepared. We need to be read up and prayed up. We need to pray and meditate on Scripture truth until we are convinced that Christ alone is the answer to the world’s deepest needs. And more than anything, if we truly believe we have the greatest hope in the world, we need to smile! Who knows? Your light, your truth, and your joy may be the spark that lights the fire of hope in someone else’s life.