What is it that gives each man the cause to carry on. Looking upon the downtrodden, for example; what is the corrective or equalizing authority that spurs them to carry on each day enduring the tragic? Is it will, perhaps, is it presumption that life calls us to fight with all that we are for survival?  How can we explain those who seemingly withstand odds that would cause most to seek early end?  Does it make sense that without some reason or purpose that life would struggle with such adamant, ferocity to maintain that last breath instead of capitulating to the pressures of gravity’s impending. smothering doom?

Must we investigate numbers so large in our survey as to make some sound analytical statement regarding this unwillingness to go easy into demise?  Is it perhaps fear that drives men, the fear of the unknown death, that moment of air’s last harvest that we are desperate to escape, even to the point of surviving the most horrendous and enslaving acts? Why do children starve when they might quit, old people live on when the money and pain are far too heavy, outweighing tolerance or those having experience the loss of family or tragedies of war continue to transcend in memories better forgotten?  What makes us fight on when we ought apparently give up, especially when all witnesses concur?

What makes American’s love an underdog? What passion drives us to worship or celebrate that person having been given less than nothing rising beyond circumstance or limitation to become something viable, tenable, important of perceived wealth and social value?  We crave this imagery, the person of low regard fighting against overwhelming odds and prevailing beyond virtually unbeatable conditions. What is it in the nature of life’s unwillingness to quit that we find a spark to carry on ourselves, that we are left with a charming memory or inspiration of “can do” which gives our own lives surge to continue?

Then comes the pending question none wish asking; If things are truly that insufferable from the outset, the circumstances too dire, the struggle too overwhelming and bleak, why don’t each of us faced with these obstacles or reality simply and immediately seek ending? Why are those who we all have seen seemingly incapable of standing in the midst of their overwhelming emotional, physical and spiritual challenges not perceived and labeled as imminent danger to themselves?  Why do those in horrific life circumstance, poverty and pain continue to fight with an enduring quality that amazes onlookers?

It is Hope. Simply put without it we would have no will to live, but with it we can imagine colorful horizons in the darkest moments of night. In hope we have the active participation and acknowledgement of the possible. We may not have now or may not be capable at this point but we have to cling to the ideal that at some distant point we will rise above the obstacles, limitations and disabilities to arrive at a future so remarkable even the thought of its existence spurs us to do what must be done in travels.  From where does this hope come?  It is obviously not societal as this society subscribes to the survival of the fittest daring the weak to end it themselves and then taking the harshest measure to carry out the recommendation in kind. It is not something of self for all of us have it and though some more than others its clarity is understood beyond the borders of cast, nationality, worship or reason.  How does an infant know to fight with every ounce of its frail measure to prolong its life at any cost?  When will we recognize the simple admissions that indicate the history from whence we became?  Since this endemic hope is present is there a method by which to inflame, increase or empower its measure and quality that all might find the will to overcome the obstacles that heretofore call us to surrender?

I know the origins of my own hope, but I am not too proud and self consumed to proclaim my answer the same answer produced in the mind and will of each man.  However, there is an understanding, specific to Christianity which allows those of faith in God to reach beyond the will of self to something that spurs us on to the hope of a future promised by a God beyond limitation.  The Lord doesn’t just speak of Hope but He breeds it among believers in everything we do, believe and hold dear. For without hope without the consuming drive to get up when the last breath would be considered delightful and even proper by some, is the thing of the enduring qualities of Christian belief in the promise of deliverance, salvation, escaping inevitable wrath and transformation for an eternity spent with God.  The Hope of Almighty God is part of us through creation, that is why it is not specific to believe only perfected in the heart of each believer for God loves ALL.

C.S. Lewis one of the greatest historical apologists and former well know atheists said the following about hope; “Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”   This esteemed thinker and writer got it when it came to the foundations of faith, the greatest of which I believe is hope, for it is that impervious capacity to look fear, danger, challenge and death in the eye with a perspective of seeing beyond their current intimidating or overwhelming promises. Hope is the belief as the Bible(Hebrews 11:1) says in things not yet seen, that imaginary will that looks beyond what is to what “might” or surely “shall” be.

We hope because God has given each the capacity to reach beyond the senses to a reality that is beyond the limitations of sensory understanding, something tangible yet spiritual that may only be comprehended or addressed in spiritual understanding through the lens of faith.  We hope because God has given us that capacity to protect life from overwhelming odds of this life and world that well, “Kills everyone, eventually”.  It has a construct and understanding of our mortality that calls us to prolong that inevitable expense for as long as is “spiritually” possible.  We as Christians become powerful when we embrace, investigate, pray about and accept the potency of Hope in the Promises of God. For the Hope of Christ gives us power through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling authority and understanding that surpasses the mortal limitations and time constructs of this temporary universe and calls us to eternity, where infinity denies limitation.

You’ve got Hope, you’ve got a mustard seed of faith now you have to learn how to call upon them in duress and utilize them to overcome all that is in this world as your Saviour has already conquered all within it.  We must begin to look beyond our current circumstance and the prisons of worldly perspective to unlock the power of a hopeful tomorrow to which we are citizens having been promised by God.  What then do you look to when times are tough?

Do you get caught in the headlights of the dangerous vehicles threatening your existence or beyond them at the objects of infinity? What is your level of hopeful tolerance and is it born of simple human desire to achieve or ambition to prolong your life or is it based upon the promises of your true citizen beyond this life?  Is it the hope based upon that day, that something that is beyond reason and sensibility calling forward through whatever circumstance or challenge to the tomorrow I know awaits me where none of this will matter.  What is your measure and control of the Hope that lay within you?  Will you look to its overwhelming God-filled authority to rise above the challenges of life?  Is it something you understand and something that you see makes this life well respondent to the joyful abundance that He promised.  Something awaits, can you see it?

In Jesus’ Mighty Name upon which all our promised hope resides.