Hope And Optimism

I have been reflecting recently on hope and optimism, and how they relate to life. Overall, I enjoy being somewhat, if not very, hopeful about life in general. In the world as we see it around us now, it could be easy to be very negative and doubtful about almost everything. But then, you meet someone who is just bubbling with enthusiastic hope about everything, it seems. What's the difference? 

It doesn't always relate to how much “good luck” or fortune rests on an individual, as there are those with little apparent reason to have hope who are most positive about life, and those whose cups are running over who are really pessimistic. 

What does it take to have hope?

Jesus did not seem to use the word “hope” much in what has been recorded in the New Testament in the Bible. He spoke more of faith, having faith, and trusting in God and in Him. 

The concept of “hope” is used much more in the remainder of the New Testament. I am guessing that is because the object of our hope, as Christians, had gone to “be with the Father,” as Jesus said He would, after which He would return. He blessed the faith of those who saw Him and lived with Him, and believed. But He also blessed those who would come to believe through the word of those who actually saw Him, yet had not themselves seen Him with their own eyes. 

Those who wrote the New Testament had seen and deeply believed in Jesus, as the Son of God, as the Savior of the world, as the One through whom they could be saved and “born again.” So much so, that most of them gave their lives rather than deny their faith. And it is through their faith and witness, as born out in the hearts and souls of new believers all the time by the Holy Spirit, that we can rest assured in our HOPE of resurrection, as we live our lives in the world today. 

To talk of faith in God may seem at times to be crazy in this modern world, but to me, it is the modern world with AI, robots, self-driving cars, phones that govern lives, and everything else that seems crazy - when I think of God creating and sustaining the universe. Imagine, if you will - He created everything from nothing, and the scientists are still stumped on that one!

God Bless Us All!