Where is our hope?

Two weeks off from school is never really easy for me. It's not that I so enjoy spending hours reading and doing homework and these two weeks cramp my style, but more that I don't know what to do with myself with all this free time. On past breaks, I've spent endless hours watching movies, but our DVD player recently tanked and that option has gone out the window. So now I find myself sitting in front of our TV watching bad daytime shows and wondering what to do with myself.

Like today. After sleeping till almost 9, I got up, showered and shaved and got ready for another day of sitting around until work this afternoon. At 11 I turned on the Bonnie Hunt Show, not so much because I really like it but more because it's something to watch that's not a Soap. While it was on I began reading and didn't realize that Bonnie was over and Martha Stewart had started. When I lifted my eyes, I saw Martha talking with Tom Brokaw, and I was intrigued by the conversation. Not that I should have been surprised, but they were discussing the "wonderful" events of the recent presidential election. During this conversation, Brokaw stated that Obama exemplifies the hope of our country, both personally and ideologically. I couldn't help but be bothered by this comment for a number of reasons.

First, that is a lot of pressure to place on a single human being. Sure, he ran on a platform promising hope for America, but now that he has been elected, the whole country is counting on him to make positive changes for us and future generations. The problem is that, being merely human, he is going to let us down at some point in some way. Probably more often than not. Yet so many in America, and across the world, are placing all their hope in this one man. And that, to me, is frightening.

And horribly sad.

No single individual can meet the all the expectations we put on them, especially if we are placing our hope on them to better our future. And not just our temporal future. There is an eternal future that must be of greater concern to us, and there is only one source of hope for this future - Jesus Christ. God has promised that all who trust in His Son for the forgiveness of sins will live with Him in eternity, but those who do not trust in His Son will be forever separated from Him, living for eternity in the torment of being separated from love and good.

Now, there are some who do not believe in eternity after this life. They view death as an annihilation of our being, and therefore there is no reason to look to anything beyond this life. They argue that we must therefore make the best of this life and enjoy it while we can, because once we're dead, we're dead. Yet this view has no hope, and living without hope is not living at all. Though I agree that we only have one life as we know it, the life that comes from Christ is one that will never end, and it is one that is spent in the eternal beauty and love of the Father who made us and loves us dearly.

And that is a life worth hoping in.

So as we look to our newly-elected president as the hope for the future of our country, may this not be the end of our hope. Let us join together with the hymn writer in declaring that "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness."





And I'm so sorry if this entry doesn't make sense. My mind was moving faster than my hands...