Hope Traffickers: Open Call

While waiting in line recently to check out my groceries, two women behind me were discussing their concerns about our country: financial condition, war, fighting politicians, social security, and the list went on.

Eventually, the conversation narrowed down to personal concerns: family, relational discord, and health issues.

 As I completed checking out and turned to leave, one lady asked the other in a tired, resigned voice, "Do you think it's childish to have hope about anything anymore?"

Her hopeless question troubled me for days -- mainly because somewhere deep down, perhaps I needed to wrestle with that myself.

What I discovered is the vast difference between wishful thinking and true hope.

We may wish for a Ferrari and a Beverly Hills mansion, but unless Daddy Warbucks pulls up it's just wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is an open-ended thought process that expects no results. It fits in the same category as daydreaming.

Hope, however, anchors in confident expectation. An expectation that circumstances will change. True hope manifests in a peace that passes all understanding that when the walls come tumbling down, they're not down for good.

True hope isn't childish - it just takes a child-like faith.

Hope expects. The events of 9/11 shone forth true hope in high definition blue-ray. Hope kept workers digging for weeks in confident expectation of finding survivors. Hope moved firefighters' feet toward chaos to rescue people when everyone else ran away. They confidently expected all was not lost. They were right.

Hope reminds us what Jesus promised: "I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full."  (John 10:10b)

Not a half life.

Not a worry-filled existence.

To live - fully alive.

You and I can serve as hope traffickers. When chaos reigns, we help and serve others with the confident expectation that God always brings good out of evil. He is always for us, never against us. He provides our only hope for getting out of this world alive - eternally.

God's hope provides an anchor for our soul regardless of our circumstances. Without true hope we remain adrift on the floating debris of wishful thinking.
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