Did you ever think hope could vanish as meaning itself grows thin?
Across cultures and countries, many people sense it.
- Progress without purpose.
- Motion without direction.
Life keeps moving, but fewer know why.
That’s why TV channels and streaming platforms replay epic stories again and again.
Stories like The Lord of the Rings.
Frodo Baggins and his companions live day and night in loss, pain, and darkness.
Tolkien enthusiasts adopted the catchphrase “Frodo Lives” to express hope in dark times.
For anyone in despair, three reminders can light up a dismal season.
Fill your flat tire
Hopelessness is due to a flat spiritual tire.
No matter how hard you try to fill your life with sports, shopping, or media, the tire leaks.
In my experience, people who do this end up empty.
Ultimately, they lose hope.
I believe, however, that profound hope lies in a person, not in a team or merchandise.
Paradigm-shifting hope comes from the life-changing moment one sees that God is here for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
It’s a mystery to many, but it’s based on attested facts.
“We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.” Acts 10:38-41
Knowing God and his plan for your life actually fills the tire with sustaining hope.
A personal relationship with God
At the end of his life, C. S. Lewis published Till We Have Faces.
He retells the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche.
Psyche’s older sister, Orual, is obsessed with seeing the unseen.
So, she tries to see the gods where Psyche lives.
But, Orual discovers she can’t see the gods until she believes.
“How can the gods meet us face to face till we have faces? I now know, Lord, why you utter no answer. You yourself are the answer.” Orual in Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis
The divine answer for hope is a person.
And when you see. Oh my!
“This is what we proclaim to you: what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched concerning the word of life, and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you too, so that you may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. Thus, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:1-4
Knowing God results in daily lasting hope.
Hope even in our routines
Hope is mentioned 254 times in the Bible.
Why? Because God brings meaning to everything we do…
- in our work
- in our nourishment
And He rewards us with wisdom, knowledge, and happiness.
“A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness…” Ecclesiastes 2:24-26
With God at the center, no more flat spiritual tires.
It all depends on where you look and what you see.
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator.” Blaise Pascal
And there’s this from Samuel Smiles.
“Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who hopes so strongly has within him the gift of miracles.”
Take three antidotes for daily hope.
- Gratitude: Make everything happen with gratitude.
- Humor: Laugh at yourself and with others often.
- Kindness: Dispense purposeful kindness in every circumstance.
What are your favorite antidotes for spreading hope?