Just Like Ronnie Said

"I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will eventually triumph, and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life."
- memorial marker at the Ronald Reagan grave site

That statement wouldn't go over well with most Christians of a Calvinist background. Actually, most church statements will say that man, because of original sin, is degenerate. So, that statement wouldn't even be agreed to by most people that just watch the nightly news. Why would someone as intelligent as Ronald Reagan make a comment that could have come from Bonzo? (Bedtime for Bonzo, Bonzo Goes to College-come on, look it up, people!)

I think Reagan was looking at mankind in faith; faith in what we hope to be, not what we often are. And I think that is the way God looks at us. Not blindly, but seeing beyond the bad, to the good. AND, I believe that is how we are to look at each other, beyond the bad to the good. Just like we want others to look beyond our bad to the good. Dottie Rambo wrote beautiful lyrics for a song titled "He looked beyond my fault and saw my need". Shouldn't we do the same?

This is harder sometimes more than others. Sometimes we see the whole world going to the pits of Hell. (Except ourselves, of course.) Elijah thought that after he confronted the priests of Baal (I Kings 19) but God put him straight. Even though we feel alone, there is a sense of urgency, of expectation that something better is coming. In Romans 8:19-21, the Bible says:

¹⁹ For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; ²⁰ for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.

In Matthew 19:28-29

²⁸ Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, in the new world,^[a] when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. ²⁹ And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold^[b] and will inherit eternal life.

So, maybe, Ronnie had it right. We need to look expectantly to the good. Because, in faith, it is there. And this new world we look to, we yearn for, is for all. We only need to accept Him as Savior and Lord. It is even there for those we may not like. C.S. Lewis said that we would be surprised to see the people that make it into Heaven, and I think he got it right. His salvation is for ALL who will accept it.

This hope is here and now as well, not just in the future. In II Corinthians 5:5, it says

⁵ God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.

A guarantee is like a deposit, a down payment, a TASTE of the Great Banquet that awaits. His Sprit in us is just the beginning of what is coming. So let's look at each other a little more kindly. After all, we know what's ahead, and we wish it for everyone, as God wishes it for everyone.

(Except for you. Yeah, you. I see you out there. Just no hope...dang, there I go again!)