Thoughts on Hope

“Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world.  There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise.  The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy….there was something we grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in reality….something has evaded us.”              ~C.S. Lewis,  Mere Christianity

I recently started reading through Mere Christianity again. I marked it up in college and now find myself pouring over my old notes. I’m reminded of the wisdom Lewis has to give on a variety of topics- including where we find our hope.

The above passage has always resonated with me. How many of us have longed for something…really longed for something…and then when we get it, it’s not quite what we thought we wanted?  You could call this materialism or consumerism – something society has developed in us. Or could it be part of our design?  Simply put, nothing on this earth will ever quite satisfy- because we were created for something more.

Hope is an interesting concept. Some say it is a crutch that Christians cling to— to get through life in order to reach an afterlife.  But hope is more than a future concept- or at least it should be. It should be a daily reality.  A living hope.  If that hope was our reality I think our daily lives would look a little different…that more of Jesus would shine through us.

“It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.  Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.” 

Where is your aim?  Are most of your days aimed at heaven or aimed at earth? I know mine aren’t always heaven focused.  Like Lewis mentions, I think we  become ineffective when we lose sight of what’s to come – when we forget to think about Heaven and get so caught up in the trials of today—our current realities. 

“Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor and power.  Let heaven fill your thoughts.  Do not think only about things down here on earth.  For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”                  Colossians 3:1-4 (NLT)

It’s a beautiful thing to think about- our real lives being hidden with Christ!  This hope keeps me pressing on- and reminds me that when earth’s joys fail to bring the full satisfaction that they promised, I should take that as my reminder that I was created for something more.