rewdy

Aging, The Future, and Hope

I’m 24 and I’ll be 25 within the year. I’m young but I am beginning to sense the effects of aging. “College kids” are beginning to seem young to me; high schoolers seem foreign; my body is softer than I remember; my muscles weaker. Not really a big deal, but it’s forcing me to come to terms with how I will respond to the reality that my life is passing.

As long as I can remember I have believed that a person is only as old as they think. My grandfather was an awesome example of this: He worked hard, traveled, learned, discovered, and lived life to the fullest far after he retired from his career and well into his 80′s. He always said he wanted to die in his bootstraps and he did. I really want follow his example. As long as God gives me life, I want to truly live.

Thus, as I am beginning to hear the jokes about how my last birthday that is worth looking forward to is approaching, I want to stop and deliberately protest. My life will not end at 25–nor at 30, 40, or 50! No, every year I will work hard to ensure that it is better than the last. I will not settle for drifting into monotony; I will live an adventure passionately seeking for the things that are better, more good, more right, and more true. I will seek to become more true to whom I was made to be and I will strive not to waste a moment in lament over times goneby.

But why this hope? Is it merited?

Before I say why I think hope is significantly merited, it is important to stop for a second and note a few things about the nature of hope itself.

Hope is, in essence, saying I believe there is a reason to suspect that good is on it’s way. The catch here, though, is that there has to be a reason to hope. Hope is inspired, fundamentally, out of reason. If hope exists where there is no reason to hope, it’s called ignorance. Hope simply for hope’s sake is foolishness.

Therefore, hope can only truly exist if there is a reason to suspect that good is to come.

So, what’s my reason to expect good in the future?

It’s not in myself. While I have done okay so far, hoping in my own abilities to find a great life falls short for me. Why? For every time I have succeeded, I’ve failed twice. For every time I’ve tried something new, I’ve sat back afraid to try at least five times. For every time I’ve had a good idea, I’ve had at least twenty bad ideas. I’m a person of average intellect, average skill, average looks, average family, etc. I’m not extraordinary. While I could focus on my successes and conjure up hope for some grand future, I can’t do that with intellectual integrity because it ventures out into the realm of ignorance–there is not significant reason to expect anything great. If my hope is based only on what I know of myself so far, then I can hope to live an average, mundane life. I don’t want that, though, and therefore I don’t and won’t find my hope in myself.

It’s not in my family or friends. I think I probably have the best family there is and, likely, the best friends there are, too. I love them deeply. Even still, the people who are closest to me let me down the most. I don’t hold it against them, they’re human. But neither am I willing to build my hope of my life on the relationships I have with them. Doing so sets me up to have everything crash down when they’re not around (for whatever reason). This is maybe sad to recognize, but I must be honest with myself here.

It’s not in my career. I don’t think I need to say much about this. The past six months have amply shown that even the best jobs can be lost, the biggest companies can fail, and even good, hard-working, intelligent people can find themselves without jobs and with seemingly nowhere to turn.

It’s not in my government. Many people are tempted to look to the government for hope. I think this is a very sad mistake. While the government is good–it protects us, it provides us certain services that enhance our lives greatly–it’s role is to provide an safe environment for us to live our lives. Not somehow to give us lives to live–that’s not freedom and that surely isn’t hope. Furthermore, look at any government agency: you’ll find beauracracy, inefficiency, corruption (not always, but more often than not), and a fair level of incompetency. Now, I’m not ranting on government, but I’m trying to be honest. If that is what I’ve always seen, where is the reason to think it will be any different? Even a very charismatic politician cannot change a system that’s so much more established even than he.

So why do I hope? How can I?

My hope is in Jesus Christ. What’s my reason?

In John 10:10, Jesus told us that he came to give us life. He did this by dying to pay the penalty that all of our own shortcomings demand. We’ve been brainwashed to think that we’re all basically good, but we’re not and we know we’re not. At the core of us, there is evil–we hate, we’re self-seeking, and worst of all we reject the God who made us.

This evil of ours presented a dilemma for God who loves us, but is also just. He must love but he also must maintain justice. Therefore, he can’t let evil go unpunished. To remedy this, he sent his perfect Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to live and to show us his love is by dying the criminal’s death we deserve so that we, in turn, wouldn’t have to die if we would turn to Him and ask forgiveness.

No one in history changed the course of humankind more than Jesus Christ. But this being true, Jesus promised us this in John 14:12-14: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. ¹³ Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” [emphasis mine]

The truth is that as I (or any of us) believe in Jesus and commit to living lives like he lived–not according to some religion, but according to his example–we will be able to change the world and make it truly better. THIS IS HOPE! It’s not because any of us are so great, but because Jesus himself will be with God working on our behalf, supporting us in our efforts.