Jesus is the very best hope for our future.
Read that line again and let it marinate in your soul. Jesus is the very best hope for our future. And, my goodness do we need an extra dose of hope right now.
It was in the middle of Lent 2020 when COVID-19 came to our shores. We shut things down at Prince of Peace in March last year and have been living under this suffocating cloud of confusion, fear, and uncertainty since. We are all exhausted from pandemic fatigue and raw from the toxic election cycle and the toll our political environment has thrown on us. We can celebrate that there was a peaceful transition of power from Trump to Biden and we can mark the historic realities of our first female vice president and the message this sends to all women, but especially our daughters and granddaughters. Even still, the divisions within our country are stark and vast. So, I say it again, Jesus is the very best hope for our future.
February is the month of love according to the seasonal shopping aisles at the grocery store. Everywhere we look we see opportunities to dive into romantic love and share or deepen a connection with someone. I certainly won’t bemoan this. Encouraging stronger and deeper commitments and fostering love amongst couples is a good thing. But I also want us to lean in deeper than the Valentine’s Day hoopla. If we truly believe that Jesus is the very best hope for our future (and He is) then that ought to tell us that His ways are a roadmap towards a hope-filled future as well.
It is Jesus who gives us life by laying aside His. Perhaps, in this month of love, laying aside our lives for others is a way we manifest hope. Jesus bears our burdens and lightens our load. Fear, doubt, and worry have been crushing us for a year now. In this month of love, find a way to carry a burden for someone else—maybe even a political opponent.
Jesus ignites our spirits and raises us up out of the ashes. In the story of the raising of Lazarus, after Jesus raises him he looks to the people gathered and tells them to unbind Lazarus and let him go. In this month of love, may we let Jesus do what only He can do—raise the dead and bring life. But, let us not neglect our calling to unbind and release one another. We can’t unbind ourselves from despair. That is the calling of our fellow brothers and sisters. Look for opportunities to wash off the residue of sin and death from others. That means, instead of looking at the things that make us different and pit us against one another—see the Image of God in each person you come across. And find ways to hold up a mirror so they can see God smiling back at them. This is our contribution to hope. This is our month of Love. And it only makes sense because Jesus is the very best hope for our future.
