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THE REALITY OF HOPE
Megan McGibney
 

Hope is your survival
A captive path I lead
-    “I Will Find You” by Clannad

What is hope? Some may say hope is wishful thinking, while others may say it is some kind of optimism. I don’t think either definition fully grasps its meaning.

Hope is not simply a positive outlook in order to get through the day, or life for that matter. It is not a frivolous expectation, like crossing your fingers that the line at Starbucks is short or that a seat will be available on the crowded subway ride home. Hope is something more. It is something bigger and more inspiring than simple optimism.Hope sees all. It sees the trash, the pain and the bleakness. It sees the despair and anger, the hurt and fear. Hope recognizes that light is difficult to find.

What hope does next is what defines it. Hope rolls up it sleeves and starts digging. It forges ahead and digs long and hard no matter how tough the digging gets. Hope does this because it knows that somewhere there is light. Hope knows that there is much worth fighting and living for. This is the essence of hope. Hope sees all the angles and the possibilities no matter how dire and knows that beauty and light still exist. That is why hope is inspiring. It gives us the will to journey on. 

Let’s be honest, the world is a difficult place. Despair makes more sense. Negativity seems to be the logic of the day. And if we’re honest, pain and fear often laugh in the face of hope. We’re often overwhelmed by the current climate that we often settle on burying hope to let our pain and mourning take complete control. We can’t look at social media or the news without feeling the anxiety that comes with fleeting light and impending darkness.
This is why the hope of God matters. This is why the hope of Jesus Christ matters. 

God is hope just as God is love. After all, how many of us fallen short of being His children? How many of us roll our eyes at the idea of God’s ways? God should be the first to give up. But God continues God’s infinite redemption. God knows there is light in us somewhere beneath our darkness. God sees our strongest possibilities. The very essence of God is hope and that’s why God sends Jesus. Jesus walks with us in the midst of pain, oppression, hurt, hate, and death. Yet the resurrection still happens, signifying that hope wins the day. 

If God is Hope and believing in God means believing in God’s hope, Then what do we have to lose? The greatest gift of this Gospel is God’s continued hope in God’s creation even when it seems futile.  

Finally, if God sees hope everywhere and in everyone, then shouldn’t we? We can’t be Christians and be hopeless about the future. We can’t be Christians and not be loving toward our neighbor. We can’t be Christians without the hope that there is reconciliation for all of us, neighbors included. We can’t be Christians if there is no hope that the marginalized, oppressed, and broken will be set free.

To believe in Christianity is to believe in the hope set forth by God. Receive it, strange and unusual as it may feel. But hope is the way to go. The foundation of our entire faith is based on the hope set forth in Christ. If God can send God’s son to bring this hope then what other choice is there than to do the same? And yes, hope is not rose-colored glasses. It’s not optimism. But it makes all the difference. That's what Forefront has given me, hope. Join me today in hope.