As I sit at the end of the day, I read the latest headlines of the news. Students are left without education, having to work instead of study; riots spread throughout the world in protest against financial services markets; people are arrested as they occupy Wall Street; the Middle East fights to what seems no end.
Something is happening in our world. Not just our home town. Not just in our country, but in the whole world. People are angry, scared; they are without hope. They have given up hope in their governments and, in some places, their houses of worship and religious leaders.
How did we come to this? How did we manage to find ourselves fighting, scared, and without an ounce of hope that something good just might be on the horizon?
To this question, I do not have an answer. I do however, believe in hope. Not in the hope of mankind, or institutions rather, hope in a person, the person of Jesus Christ, the son of the Father, whose Spirit is alive and well on this earth. The Apostle Peter to the church scattered in Europe and Asia, in a not so different time from ours said, “ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3) What hope is Peter talking about? The hope that Jesus brings for our souls because of the cross and resurrection. Jesus brings us hope that we no longer need to walk in death and darkness. He brings us life. It is here that we find hope in the midst of our crazy world.
I am not saying that Jesus guarantees us a good government, or a financial market that is virtuous and secure. Rather, Peter’s words tell us that Jesus gives hope, the same Jesus that lived and died and lives again in us, His followers, His church, His bride. He is alive today, in the midst of our turmoil and struggle, He is here, and He has not changed. Our God is alive today and sees what is happening in our world. If we can trust in the Prince of Peace, then maybe we can see it happen. Maybe we can see His Kingdom come, on the earth as it is in Heaven. But first, we must remember our hope in Christ. We start with our hope in Jesus, because in Him, “all things hold together” (Col 1:17).
At IMPACT 360, we believe in this hope and in this truth. We learn to take it into a world in need of hope. We learn to apply this hope to our situation, whatever it may be.