Embracing Hope Amidst Uncertainty
Dear First Pres Family,
(As most of you know, I’m on vacation with Shelley and members of our extended family. As we’ve watched the news from here, Shelley suggested that we communicate with our congregations, and so here’s what I would say to you if I were home.)
Grace and peace to you in the name of the one who holds all things together, especially when they seem to be falling apart, Jesus the Christ.
These are such scary times. It’s so hard to be away from you when things are going crazy. The recent events remind us just how fragile our peaceful world can be—how easily we can be put into danger or threat from people who want to harm us, and, if we’re honest, people who have a grievance against us.
So much about our nation and the world is unsettled and unstable right now.
It’s an important time for people of faith to remind ourselves of what it means to trust in God. Our Christian faith doesn’t pretend that bad things will never happen or that evil doesn’t exist. No, what we hold on to is our trust that Christ redeems and renews even our most broken places—that God will fulfill his promises, even in ways we can’t see just yet.
Whatever else is happening, followers of Jesus are meant to live lives of hope. I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating: Optimism is great, but optimism is only the expectation that things will get better. Hope is different. Hope is trusting not only that things will get better, but that God’s promises will be fulfilled.
Hope is hard. Hope is a discipline. Hope takes practice.
Our summer messages this year are rooted in the Psalms, those prayers at the heart of the Israelites’ worship language. My first message when I come back will be on Psalm 42, where the writer says:
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
We’re clearly in a time when the challenge of hope is what the world needs to see from us. Yeah, there are all kinds of things we can debate right now about what to do—and who do it to—but the real task for those of us who follow Jesus is to love God and act on behalf of people in need, especially those who have little power or standing in our systems. It’s our job, right now, to show the world that our real trust isn’t in politics or bombs, but in the God of the Bible, the one who reveals himself to us as Jesus.
Hope is hard. Hope is a discipline. Hope takes practice.
Hope is also my prayer—for you, for me, and for this troubled world. As I go back to my vacation and time of sabbath rest and connection with family and friends, know that I’m holding you in my prayers and in my heart.
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Blessings to you all during these unsteady times.
Never forget the source of your hope.
Pastor John