I Still Believe in a Person Called Hope

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.  Abba, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Abba, we belong to you.  Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.  Romans 15:13 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. CONSIDER THIS I have a special place in my heart for the 42nd president of the United States. It's not because I agreed with his politics and I certainly didn't approve of his moral decision-making. It is because I knew him personally from a young age. I had a front-row seat to the meteoric rise of Bill Clinton as he became the leader of our country. I interacted with him multiple times over those years and, whether you loved or hated him, you couldn't deny he had a remarkable way with people and with words. One of his catchphrases is unforgettable. He would say as he campaigned across the country, "I still believe in a place called Hope." He was actually from there—Hope, Arkansas. I think I was so drawn to him because he gave me hope that maybe I, too, a kid from a small town in Arkansas, could become the president of the United States.  Obviously, the road forked for me and perhaps I chose the road less traveled. At least I took a different route. I realized I had put my hope in the government to be the solution to our problems. I became convinced that our politics couldn't heal us—that they were, in fact, in great need of being healed. I became convinced that the only way our politics, our nation, and indeed, the world, could be healed was by one person at a time. In other words, my hope shifted to a new solution altogether—Jesus. Not just Jesus as in, "when we all get to heaven" or as a spiritual solution, but in Jesus as a right-here, right-now, real solution to the real-world challenges we face every day in both small- and large-scale situations.  This is where it gets interesting. Just as salvation can only come to a person (not an institution or organization), it can only come from a person: Jesus Christ. He is the hope of every single person on the earth, whether they know him yet or not. As such, he is the hope of all institutions, nations, and governments. Indeed, the Bible tells us "the government shall be upon his shoulders." We don't need or want a Christian government, but we do want and need Jesus undergirding our government. He gets there in the same way he gets everywhere else—through his witnesses—in this case, through real Christians as public servants. A real Christian is a person for whom Jesus is Lord of all, not just part. A real Christian is a person whom the God of hope is filling with joy and peace as they trust in Jesus, a person who is overflowing with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That is how hope overflows and heals government. A real Christian is a person who has not filed Jesus in the religion folder, or the church folder, or the "got my ticket to heaven punched" folder. A real Christian has Jesus in the "life" folder, which can't be reduced to a folder because it blows up the whole filing cabinet. Jesus is life. As such, Jesus is hope. Hope is not a good feeling about the future—that's just being hopeful. Hope is the person who holds the future.   It's why I have modified the saying to, "I still believe in a person called Hope." And I know you do too.  THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION Lord Jesus—Word of God from before the beginning—our Great Teacher, You are not only my hope, you are hope himself. You are the God of hope. Forgive me for the ways I want to put you in the box called church or faith or religion or spiritual things. You are the Lord of life—all of life. Make me an agent of your redemption in all of life—everywhere and all the time. Fill my job, my vocation, my profession, with your calling and assignment. Would you, the God of hope, fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in you, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit?  It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for our good.   Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!