HOPE and PAROUSIA

Hope suggests future. Hope hints at things becoming better than they are both in this life and in the next.
"Yes, I am coming soon," says Jesus Attitude changes everything, we are told. Well, it’s true. To keep on the surface of our everyday thoughts that Jesus could be back anytime, changes our approach to all of life. Doesn’t it stir up excitement? Doesn’t it raise our curiosity about how he will look, what he will say? How will it feel to be flying through the air with thousands of other hardy believers who stuck it out, and meet the One we resolutely declared our leader? How will it feel to have every care stripped away like an old, useless skin? He seals our hope with his words, “Look, I’m coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. Amen. Come Lord Jesus!

PRACTICING HOPE

WE ARE NOT BORN WITH HOPE. We decide to have hope and we can increase our hope by practicing it. Living and walking in hope means being forward-looking and enthusiastic about today because changes are in the offing. But it means more. It implies exerting Kingdom thinking while we live and walk on planet earth. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come.” Having a Kingdom outlook is an outlook of hope. We dare to take unpopular points of view because we hope for a world that enjoys the absence of competition, adversarial communication, war, ill will, greed and selfishness. We are advocates of governance that shows compassion. We stand against policies that further disadvantage the poor. We speak about and practice mercy and grace universally, like Jesus did. Such hope results in deep contentment.

HOPE AND COURAGE

Hope and fear oppose each other constantly. We want to be courageous, but we often short-circuit bravery because of fears. Nurtured hope snow-plows fear out of the way. It is then we can stand up for what we believe and can do so unpretentiously. For example, hope will grow both strength and gentleness. They become choices rooted in hope, rather than default reactions. Spiritual courage (fear that has prayed) that blossoms out of Holy Spirit - instigated hope, will not be an aggression based on self-protection. It will remain gentle yet decisive as was the intentional response of Jesus when he confronted the Pharisees of his day. When fear strkes, cling to hope.

ROOTS OF HOPE

Our hope has to be anchored to something. How about this list of promises? Provision, answers, rewards, help, eternal life, heaven, salvation, Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, forgiveness, peace, triumph over temptation, wisdom, empowerment, access to God, mercy and grace, freedom, discipline, love, resurrection. We can’t list them all- all the promises of God to us. His promises are the fertile soil for hope to flourish. They are wonderfully positive about our future. He leaves nothing to chance in our spiritual, emotional, social, intellectual and physical life. He will look after us in all circumstances and at all levels. We have all reason to be hopeful and no excuse not to be hopeful. How great he is!

HOPE AND SUNDAY

We look for reasons and places to find hope. Here's a bg one. Each Sunday we celebrate. This first day of the week marks a phenomena so spectacular it impacted the entire world. A man whose heart had stopped, whose lungs ceased breathing, whose eyes stopped seeing, ears no longer heard and whose leaden body lay in a stone crypt, suddenly came to life. This event shattered the laws of the universe - once you are dead it’s over. All over. Until you are dead there is hope but not after. Man never had an answer to mortality. But everything in our soul says there’s something to follow death. Earlier, superstitions fabricated all kinds of weird possibilities. Now, with the resurrection of Jesus, hope for existence after this life becomes more than a desire. It is a fixed hope.

HOPEFUL PEOPLE SING

You surprise yourself when you hear yourself singing a happy song when for days you hadn’t felt happy. Where did that come from? Your soul heard some good news. The Spirit communed with your soul, reminding it that despite disappointments, opposition and perhaps even abuse, there is One who knows every detail of your life and will bring good out of bad, beauty out of ashes. Your soul hears that things will change. It decides, almost without your awareness that the future looks bright. Hardships can be borne. Fears are not formidable. Setbacks are temporary. God, after all, is still in control. There are reasons to express gratitude. So give voice to the welling joy - and sing.

HOPE ENCOMPASSES LIFE

With your first breath you hoped.
Reflect on when you knew you began to hope. Was it your first Christmas when you had a specific toy in mind? Or was it when you reached out to make a friend? Or did it hit you when you worried about your report card. Likely it was all of those. But hope begins before we can identify what hope is. Its first sparks show in the hospital when we crave acceptance and love from mother but it saturates our thinking through every age, affects our attitude through each personal encounter, figures in every crucial decision, and encourages us through each crisis. Hope makes life tolerable through every stage and even gives us anticipation for the life to come. Do you think the measure of hope we possess is parcelled out to us at birth, or do we create our hope?