High Hopes!

Keep Hope Alive

Grabbing on to Hope and never letting Go

By Pastor Adam Fox

Since early December I have been waiting eagerly and anxiously. Major League Baseball opened there Free Agency Period then and allowed the players who have no contract to join the team of their choice. 

As an unashamed White Sox fan, this year's free agency period gave me some hope, hope for a winning season and a World Series title.  I and the faithful few of us Sox nerds have been desiring two players to sign with the White Sox, Manny Machado and Bryce Harper. Both Harper and Machado can pick any team and earn hundreds of millions of dollars to play a game. 

But I want them. Harper roaming the outfield on the Southside of Chicago, and Machado on the hot-corner. Is it likely for either of the players to sign with the Chicago White Sox for hundreds of millions of dollars? No. Do I want them and see a good fit? Yes. But that is why I can hope. 

Hope is a fun thing. But what really is hope? Hope can be defined as "a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen." And that is exactly what I am enjoying about this feeling. I can desire and expect things for my baseball team but I am not sure that this hope in a baseball player is sustainable or foundational for my life

I can have hope in plenty of things in my life. That I will drop these 15 pounds. That our elected leaders will put the needs of the people above business. When I sit down - the chair will not break. Hope can be in a lot of things, but none of these will drive me or motivate me - let alone sustain me. 

I believe that we should be hoping for more, in a greater or more worth while things. While some put there hope in justice (looking at you Batman) or hope in love, the sciences or the kindness of strangers. But to me, while these are admirable and things for us to believe in and do often, they are not great enough. 

We should instead be putting of hope and faith in God above our desires to hope in baseball, or congress, or other men. But let's be honest, the things or people we hope in sometimes fail. Harper may sign with the New York Yankees (ewwwww) congress does not always do what is best for the common Joe, bad people get away with literal murder. And so on. Being hopeful can be disappointing, frustrating even. But no matter how difficult or frustrating things of this world and life maybe - God will never disappoint us. 

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance and my God. Psalm 42:11

Hoping in God is something that will never disappoint us. John Bunyan said "Hope has a thick skin and will endure many a blow". Hope is resilient and nearly indestructible, which is why people can be disappointed night after night (looking at you Bulls basketball fans) and still believe in things to come. 

That should be us as Christians! Having a thick skinned hope in God and the promises of the Bible, just like Abram did. "Father Abraham" was called by God to leave his comfort zone, his family, his everything because God called him to do so. In Genesis 12, God makes a promise with Abram who was childless and landless in order for him to be the founder of the nation and people of Israel - God's people. 

Was this a frightening calling? Yes to me it was. But through his life God blessed him and his family and so many others greatly because of the hope and trust in God. 

 Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Abram later to be called Abraham, is someone that I find so fascinating. At the age of 75, he broke from the comfort of his family and lifestyle to do as God said. Because God told Him to do so, to start a nation. And there is where the great hope comes from, a promised family. God told them that they would be the father and mother of a great nation meaning that they would start one.

Could you imagine, being a parent to an infant at the prime age of 100? The oldest two mothers on record are both 55 years old, this would blow the record off by decades. But God made them a promise, a covenant, and God has yet to disappoint. They could hope and not be disappointed because God was with them and fulfills his promises and that goes for us too.

As modern Christians, we have plenty to hope for in things still to come. God is coming back (amen and amen) and soon I hope. And because of this great hope that exists in our risen Lord and Savior, we can look at our circumstances and not crumble. Because God is alive and reigning in Heaven, we as Christians are instilled with hope. A hope that exists in this life and the up and down parts of life as well as hope in the afterlife. So we can confidently place our hope in what God has written to us in Revelation will come true.

¹² “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Revelation 22

While I can put my hope in congress or in a baseball team trying to sign a player, these will not always end well. Instead, hoping in God and the truths in His word will never disappoint you.

Cheers and Excelsior!

Pastor Adam