A Context Where Hope Is Possible

Christians are often criticized for ignoring the problems of the world and focusing on some magical future free from pain. The common misconception is that we are so preoccupied with our future happiness that we are content to close our eyes and wait for death as the world burns down around us. But in fact, the opposite is true: We believe our life in this brief and fading world has meaning because there is more to come.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, we see exactly what life amounts to without the hope that Jesus died to bring us. The ancient Israelites of Solomon’s time did not believe that the body or the soul lived on after death, and through his words, we see exactly what that would mean: that nothing we do matters, except in how it makes us feel. The quality of the moment is the only truth there is. Why struggle for justice, or for virtue, or for truth? What would be the point? The evidence is there before us: Things just happen. We are lucky or unlucky for a while on the earth, but in the end, we are all just dead. There is no good ending to anyone’s story here on the earth. The greatest tale of courage and self-sacrifice is only a lesson in futility and despair if all the characters end as corpses.

But if there is something, anything, beyond the brief years our bodies breathe and bleed and walk the earth, then there is hope for a different ending than the one we see here and a real and permanent meaning to our actions. Only if God exists and has an interest in us after our bodies have died, does it matter what we do with them while they are still living.

Respond in Prayer

Dear Father God, You have promised life beyond death to those who love you. Thank you for this gift, and let it inspire me to share you with others, that they might also share in it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Michael Bonikowsky