THE PRACTICE AND ART OF HOPEFULNESS

“For surely I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NRSV)

Peter Steinke’s book “A Door Set Open: Grounding Change in Mission and Hope” contrasts hopefulness and hopelessness. Hopefulness, according to Steinke, stirs imagination, expands horizons, influences events, energizes, and creates a sense of buoyancy. Hopelessness shrinks the radius of possibility, becomes apathetic, entraps, minimizes options, resigns to existing conditions, and loses heart. Steinke also writes that hopefulness remembers the future so that we will not remain trapped in the present arrangement of things.

Since reading Steinke’s book, the phrase Remember the Future has lingered in my mind. At first, the words are disorienting. Remember points backward, future looks forward. Yet in every discussion, deliberation, discernment, and decision, a leader must give deep and conscientious consideration to the future -- to the future of the mission, to future contexts, to future generations, to a future with hope. Hope carries us across the threshold of “can’t.” We must always remember the future. 

-- Robert Schnase 

#6453

IN A SHELL

"God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us." (2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT)

Gracious Father, You took the initiative to reach out to me -- even in my sin and selfishness -- in order to bring me into Your eternal kingdom, through the work of Christ. I cannot fathom such love! And yet, Father, I try to hoard Your grace! I put up walls of protection that I might keep hurt out and blessing in. I am like the clam that shuts itself up in its shell, afraid of threats from the outside. You call me to unshell myself and to partner with You in Your mission of love. Unshell me, Lord, that I, too, may reach out to a lonely, discouraged, and even hopeless world. In Jesus' name, amen. 

-- Max Lucado in “Outlive Your Life”

#6240

DO YOU WANT HELP?

“One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, Jesus asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”  (John 5:5-6 NIV)

Who wouldn’t want help? Someone in denial of reality.

I imagine after so many years, the man at the pool no longer has a healthy idea of what life could be if he stood and moved about town and took ownership of his life. Time did its thing, but so did environment. He spent every day and every night surrounded by hurting people. The world was compressed to the bounds of those five colonnades that defined the pool at Bethesda. He wasn’t around too many healthy people, so unhealthy had become his new normal.

I watched a documentary about a thirty-four-year-old woman who had a three-hundred-pound tumor removed from her body. The tumor itself was twice the size of her initial body weight. It was a very horrific thing to see, needless to say. As the filmmakers documented this surgery, it was clear that they wondered why she had waited until the tumor was the size it was. All she could really say was that she didn’t get help because she figured it would go away on its own.

The tumor was unique, but the attitude was not. We figure that our finances will sort themselves out it time. But the credit card debt keeps piling up, and still we keep spending. The tumor is growing.

We figure our teenage daughter will change her behavior and get with the program. Meanwhile, she’s starting to cut herself. She’s beginning to fall in with a very unhealthy group of kids, and she’s moving further away from God by the day, but we decide to be patient. The tumor is growing.

We figure the problems in our marriage will fade away on their own if we don’t address them. Who says we need help? Just ordinary husband-and-wife-stuff, and it is nobody else’s business. And within a few months, we’re sleeping in separate rooms and he’s feeling an attraction to someone at work. The tumor is growing.

Jesus asks, “Do you want to get well?” Why not ask for help? 

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins” 

#5973

THE COMING OF ANOTHER YEAR

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears what I say and believes in the One who sent Me has eternal life.”  (John 5:24)

With the coming of another year we are reminded that time is passing.  The grains of sand are dripping through the hourglass; sometimes they seem to pass so quickly.  That is a frightening thing for those who have no hope.  But for those of us whose citizenship is in heaven, it's only good and it's only right.

-- Max Lucado  

#5763

VICTORY IN JESUS

“Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie -- the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’ ‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”  (John 5:2-9 NIV)

Anyone who can be in a landscape of joy while maintaining immunity to it hasn’t come to the end of himself. He hasn’t experienced how good the good news really is. He should see that someone else’s victory over hopelessness is our own victory, because Christ has brought the same liberation to every single one of us willing to say yes, to stand, and to walk. Once we’ve been to the end of ourselves and the beginning of Christ, we share our victories together, and parties break out at unpredictable moments.

-- Kyle Idleman in “The End of Me: Where Real Life in the Upside-Down Ways of Jesus Begins”

#5400

LOOK UP!

One of the pictures in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” is a man sorting through a can of garbage. He carefully takes out the little bits of tinsel he finds in the garbage can. Behind him is an angel who’s offering him a solid gold crown studded with precious jewels. But the man is so engrossed in the garbage he never notices the angel.

When we get to heaven, will we be ashamed of our preoccupation with the garbage of life -- garbage that prevented us from turning around, leaving it all behind, and reaching out for what God wanted to give us? First Corinthians 2:9 says, “No eye has seen, no ear heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

So look up! Stop clinging so tightly to what you want. Don’t lose out on what God wants to give you. 

-- Anne Graham Lotz in “Fixing My Eyes on Jesus”

#5259

HOLDING ON TO HOPE

Editor’s Note: I shared this quote last fall, but thought that during this time of pandemic crisis it is a good reminder to share again. And if you are finding SOUND BITES to be particularly helpful and hopeful now, please share with your friends and family. -- DW

HOLDING ON TO HOPE

“We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28 RSV)

Hope is a necessity for real living, but especially in [times of crisis]. As Christians, we can have the hope and expectation that life will be good again. It may not be the same, but it can be good again. Hope is belief in possibility. It is not unrealistic optimism that everything will work out and things will be like they were before. It is confidence and faith that however things turnout, God will be with us, will see us through, and will bring healing.

Hope comes out of resurrection faith, the faith that no matter how bad things get, God is in the midst working with us for good. That’s what Paul was saying in Romans: “In everything God works for good…”

Hold on to your hope!

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!”

#4803

THE ANCHOR OF HOPE

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”  (Hebrews 6:19a NIV)

Hope is called the anchor for the soul because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made. 

-- R.C. Sproul


#4466

WE ALL NEED HOPE

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)

We all need hope. We all need something to look forward to. We need the ability to move into the future without fear or dread, because if we lose hope in the future, our life in the present becomes powerless, empty, stagnant, and desolate. As Christians, we have hope because we have the promise of continual new beginnings, fresh starts. We believe in sanctifying grace and we live in the hope that God will continue to perfect us, grow us, and challenge us. The poet Louise Fletcher Tarkington expressed this desire and need: “I wish there were some wonderful place, / called the Land of Beginning Again.”

Hope reminds us that there is this place and this power in the grace and love of God. And as Christians, we have the hope that nothing in life now and forever can defeat us. Hope is the buoyant spirit that raises us up when life knocks us down. 

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!” 


#4453

AT THE CROSSROADS OF HOPE AND DESPAIR

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  (Romans 15:3)

When tragedy strikes, when trouble comes, when life disappoints us, we stand at the crossroads between hope and despair, torn and hurting.

Despair cements us in the present. Hope sends us dancing around dark corners trusting in a tomorrow we cannot see because of the multiple pasts of life which we cannot forget.

-- Joan D. Chittister, quoted in “Hope: It’s More Than Wishful Thinking”


#4219

THE POWER OF GOD

God is great and God is powerful, but we must invite Him to be powerful in our lives.  His strength is always there, but it's up to us to provide a channel through which that power can flow.

Some of you feel beat up and drained.  Some of you feel like a victim who has been picked on so thoroughly that your bones are clean.  Some of you face daunting tasks and stiff challenges, and you're worried that you don't have what it takes to carry on.  I challenge you to act as though you are empowered, and see -- just test it -- if God does not send His strength your way.  Determine this very moment to walk in the direction God is asking you to go and just trust that He will grant you power along the way.

Paul urges us, "Your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."  (1 Corinthians 2:5)

-- Bill Hybels in “The God You're Looking For”

#4175

AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.   And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:6-7 NRSV)

She wished she could be more like her husband. Nothing ever seemed to get him. He took everything in stride, and he acted as though he hadn’t a care in the world. She, on the other hand, worried about everything. She was positive that if there was something that could possibly go wrong, it would. She didn’t mean to be negative, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to be able to let go of her doubts and fears, but so far she hadn’t been able to.

It’s sometimes hard to realize that God gave us life as a gift. Many times it feels like such a burden. God never wants us to suffer unnecessarily. Part of the message that Christ brought to this world was that no one had to face problems alone. God is with us always. Another part of His message was that nothing on this earth is important other than our relationship to God and to our neighbor. Job, finances, illness, and a hundred other things create stress in our lives, but when compared with the bigger picture of eternal life, they are totally insignificant. As Christians, we need to learn to look at the world through eternity-eyes, rather than temporal-eyes. Our home is in heaven, and everything that happens to us now means nothing, so long as we have our relationship in order.

-- Dan and Nancy Dick in “Daily Wisdom from the Bible”


#4158

HOPE IN THE FACE OF DARKNESS

The Bible proclaims hope in the face of the darkness of circumstances... It does not promise that we won’t go through difficulties or that we won’t experience pain. But these will not be the final word. So the psalmist writes, “Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30:5a) The writer of Lamentations, seeing the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC, confesses his overwhelming grief and sorrow but goes on to say, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. “ (Lamentations 3:21-23)

-- Adam Hamilton in Why? - Making Sense of God’s Will

#3910

THE GOD OF HOPE

"You now have sorrow," Jesus has told [His disciples], "but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you."  (John 16:22)


Never on this earth has there been a time when we haven't needed hope -- but hope is critical when the ones we love the most are about to leave us.  I believe that is why Jesus picked this time to fill His disciples with hope . . .


All of us have felt the emotional pain of saying good-bye to somebody we love.  Perhaps we've lost a job.  Or we've seen the breakup of a home, perhaps even our own.  And the questions in all of our hearts are, "Where do I go?  What do I do?  Where can I find hope?"  We feel as if we have been abandoned at the corner of Hopelessness and Despair.


The good news is that we who know God through His Son, Jesus Christ, don't have to be left at such a desperate corner.  There is an answer, and His name is Jesus.  That's not trite.  It's not merely theological.  It's not just church talk.


It's true.


-- David Jeremiah in Jesus' Final Warning




#3860

GOSPEL TO THE LOST

"In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to Him through the blood of Christ."  (Ephesians 2:12-13 NLT)


It is a Gospel to [people] who are without God, sinful, bewildered, anxious, discouraged, self-sufficient and proud yet destroying themselves and others, caught in a desperate plight from which they cannot extricate themselves.  The Bible characterizes [people] in such a state as "lost", and as being "without hope in the world"...  And let no one suppose that such a term as "lost" is merely a bit of conventional theological jargon.  It stands for a terrible reality, a reality which modern man in his modern predicament knows only too well from his own bitter experience.  It gives rise to the voices of despair which haunt our radios, our newspapers, our fiction and poetry, our stage and screen, our doctors' offices, our hospital wards, our grisly nightmare of atomic war, and the conversation of common people who no sooner meet than they begin to bemoan the fate that has overtaken the world.


-- Lewis J. Sherrill in Lift Up Your Eyes [1949]




#3839

CHOOSING OUR PAIN

In any crisis of life, we get to choose our pain. We can either choose the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Let me illustrate.

A married couple comes to see me because their marriage is in the dumps. Communication is low. Fighting is high. Individual needs are not being met. Though not a trained therapist, I have the experience of being married to the same woman for twenty-nine years and more than twenty-five years as a pastor.

After each spouse shares his or her perspective on what’s wrong with the relationship and how they got to this place in their marriage, I always ask, “What are you willing to do to fix this relationship?” Typically, this question catches them off guard, yet it is fundamental to any healing and restoration.

I then tell them that they get to choose their pain. They can choose the pain of discipline by seeing a counselor, joining a small group, attending a marriage conference. Or they can choose the pain of regret -- getting a divorce, sharing custody of the children, losing half their stuff! They choose: pain or regret?

[King] David messes up big time by misusing his power as king and getting another man’s wife pregnant. (2 Samuel 11) He could choose the pain of discipline and ‘fess up. It would have been ugly, but resolution might have come. … Instead, he chooses more regret. He sets a plan to have the unassuming and innocent husband of Bathsheba killed. His choice multiplies the injustice and pain.

What will you choose today -- the pain of discipline or the pain of regret? Both hurt. Only one heals.

-- Jorge Acevedo in The Upper Room Disciplines 2012: A Book of Daily Devotions. © 2011 by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

#3691