Thursday, May 8, 2008

Looking for hope

Lately I've been thinking that I could use a lot more hope in my life. I'm not very good at it, to be honest. What sparked my interest in hope was a message given by Rick Zachary last year the Sunday after our men's retreat. The primary focus of his message was about developing vision. Hope is a key element to developing vision, yet I am somewhat in the dark about what it actually is and how to acquire it. I Corinthians 13:13 says that the three things we have to make it through life until perfection (Jesus) comes are faith, hope, and love. It seems we hear much less about hope than faith and love, yet if we are to make it through these times, we must be equally educated in and understand all three of these things.

This may not be the case for some people, but I am very intently focused on making the best of my immediate situation. If someone were to ask me what sort of goals I have set for the next six months, year, or five years, I completely draw a blank. I don't think that far ahead. It's very easy for me to expect nothing more out of tomorrow than what I experienced today, and I feel that is a very dangerous place to be in. To experience fuller life, there must be something we can look forward, to feel that we are in some sense progressing in life. Therefore, I for one need to find and implement hope into my life.

As often as I have time I'm going to try to study and write more about what I believe hope to be, how to acquire it, what sort of implications it has on our lives, etc. I hope that someone else gets something out of this as well.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You're right! I haven't heard many sermons or learned much on hope other than the hope we have after this life through Jesus. I'm interested in what you find out about it.
It is so true, however, when I don't have something to look forward to (an event, a trip, or something similar) I kind of get depressed. So I always like to have a future event, gathering, trip, or something coming up in the future. It gives me a goal to look to and a hopeful anticipation of a good time in the future.