Here's Hope

Jerry Rea, Pastor

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Drift or Lift

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Drift or Lift?

When you’ve been with God you always walk away with hope.  Conventional wisdom is that “hope springs eternal in the human heart.” Really? That is not always true for me, and I don’t think it’s true for all. Just living in our broken world, with broken people and broken thinking, seems to “seed” hopelessness. How can things be better? That is what my heart often says. When will things change?  I long for something different, daily, but it often does not come.  Well, it doesn’t come from our culture. It also doesn’t come from our wilted hearts. Realistically, we watch as so many people head down roads to destruction. It is entirely predictable where they will wind up. A four-year college degree is not necessary to make that jump. Look for just a moment at the drift of American culture. It is drifting toward sin, and sin always brings death. Sins are being legalized at a rate like never before. We seem to believe that if we legalize it, then the bad part of it will go away. We have legalized marijuana, gambling, and alcohol and turned our heads from the obvious and predictable outcome. Our politicians have no common sense, and seem only to live to get reelected.  Our educational system has shown the same drift in the press to a genderless populace. Does that help anything? Just calling a thing another name does not make it go away, nor does it change the hearts that hold the ideas. Racism will not go away just because we have “laws” that make it wrong. Racism was wrong long before it was legally wrong. Racism is a heart thing, not a legal thing. With our heads we seem to think that we can change all our wrongs with a legislative wand. Laws do not change hearts. It’s hard to have hope when you can almost feel the... drift. Just in observing, it’s hard to have hope. 

So, hope does not eternally spring forth from the muck and mud of real life. Here’s where hope always happens for me. There is a spiritual connection that people can make with God. The possibility of fellowship with God was made real by the life of Jesus Christ. He built a bridge to heaven at the end of our lives, but He also brought us a new way to live in the here and now. He made a way whereby we might be forgiven. The wall that separated us from God has been removed. It was not taken down by our doing. Oh, no, that wall fell when Jesus died on the cross. We observe what Jesus did. We wonder and ponder the event, but we feel a lift in our hearts at the ramifications of it all. That lift is hope. Jesus has entered our muddy world, hopelessly drifting away from everything good and given us the possibility of a whole new life. When I see it, I feel it. What I feel is hope. In Jesus we may hope for something else.  We realize in a surreal way that things don’t have to be the way they are. That realization is hope! Jesus died teaching us a new and better way. He was crucified, but His words and message live on. The gospel may not be bound, and it also may not be destroyed. People can love one another. People can respect one another. People, also, may change. Jesus made that possible. I feel a lift just thinking about it. Being with God gives you a new perspective. You walk away with hope.

I Love You

Jerry Rea