A Living Hope

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" - I Peter 1:3-4

Christians are supposed to be a happy lot. always smiling, always cheerful. Turning cheeks wherever we go. Smurfily dancing and "la-la"ing through the oversized flower garden of life. (Unless you try to touch our guns, or states rights, or individual rights, or national pride, or whatever else little niche we deem so important that our Christianity is used as it's proof, to the point where the niche is more important that the Christianity...these we guard like a Bengal Tiger over a fresh kill!)

OK, my sarcasm is on a roll here. But Christians are expected, by the world, to be happy. And we do have reason to be. So why are there days when I feel dead inside?
 
(In God's usual sense of humor, the moment I wrote those words, an ice cream truck was at the office, and there were freebies for everyone!)

The question still remains though. There are times when life seems overwhelming. Multiple pressures from all directions hammer us into a battered, broken pulp. Those times when it seems the only thing pulling us through the day is the end of it. When we look down, face in our hands, and cry "How long, O Lord, how long?"

The trick, it seems, is not to look down for too long. I'm not saying to ignore what's around you; that would be a lie. Even David knew "A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand", but he also knew "but it will not come near you". (Psalms 91:7) He could cry out, saying "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1) then "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me". (Psalm 23:4)

What kind of faith can produce such hope?  It seems like just wishful thinking. Can it be because the hope is not in our own selves, but in someone else? Not a relic of history, but in the living, breathing presence of Jesus? In the power of Almighty Father God? In the omnipresent Holy Spirit, with and among us? It is a LIVING HOPE, that carries us when we no longer have strength. Urges us on when we do. Our hope is not an impersonal ideal, not a platitude or gimmick. It is Jesus, the Christ, living presence of God. He is alive. And in His arms, in His love, so are we. 

So, even when all seems lost we "press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ." (Philippians 3:14) And when we're hanging off a cliff and at the end of our rope, don't bother looking into the chasm below, but look up to the one pulling us out!