The Truth of Hope

There are many places in scripture that describe God as a comforter and healer. I'm afraid that today's church tends to interpret these verses to mean we will all live comfortably rather than realizing the need for God as comforter arose because of the numerous pains we must endure. Positivity and shaky promises of good tidings sound great until you face the death of a loved one and you realize that none of it was real. When someone tells you "Don't worry your brother will be better soon! God will heal him" and then he dies from Cancer the only reasonable response is anger. It's human nature to want to be positive about the pain around us in the world, but the truth is earthly struggles don't always get better. My dad didn't heal from Cancer and get to see me grow up. My uncle didn't turn the steering wheel in time to not be killed by that semi truck. My Grandma never recovered from Dementia. The positive phrases that sound nice are easily exposed as lies in the midst of deep sorrow. Because I've known sorrow, when I hear hollow words of positivity in the church I have to remind myself of the words of Jesus to know that life is still worth living despite our broken world.

It would have been easy for me to be angry at God if He had told me that everything was going to be okay and then it wasn't. I sure was angry at the people who told me beautiful lies and then let me be disappointed by reality. God never lied to me once and Jesus was the most honest man who ever lived. No one knows the truth of reality more than the creator. Not only did Jesus warn us that life would be full of struggles and pain, but he also exemplified this when he was killed as an innocent man. Jesus didn't lie about the struggles that we face during our time on Earth, but Christians often feel as though we have to pretend that life is easier or happier than it is. There's no need to put a burden on ourselves that Jesus never intended us to carry. I don't think that acknowledging the pain humans face diminishes the story of Jesus even if there is no happy ending during our time on Earth. Jesus' story was full of struggles and loss, but it was still the most meaningful life ever lived.

I believe that there is hope and beauty in life. I've found meaning and peace as a Christian in knowing that through the pain of this life God brings purpose as He uses us to love others. I also know that someday there will be an end to our suffering even if it isn't until Heaven. God's image is displayed in humanity over and over again as people selflessly love each other and give of themselves in order to make someone else's life better. But, I''ve also seen how evil and greedy humans can be. I've experienced over and over how unfair and brutal life can be as so many loved ones and their memories slipped away from me. I can't tell people that God will end their suffering or heal their loved one when my dad died and it still hurts me. However, I can tell them that my pain would be meaningless if it wasn't for God's presence in my life. I can tell them that God stayed by my side through ever tearful and angry night. Without Him, I would have to face that the pain of loss that I've felt over and over was all there is to life. I'm grateful to Jesus for being so honest about the hardships of life and grieving for his friends because I faced loss and I needed a substantial hope that wasn't rooted in meaningless positivity.

The truth of the hope of Jesus is that it doesn't sound very positive at all when you value worldly things and material possessions. The truth of positivity is that it sounds hopeful to those who only value worldly things and material possessions. When we face true loss, our grief exposes positivity for its meaninglessness and begins our search for a real lasting hope in the midst of the ashes. I've learned that if we fall into the trap of spreading positivity over truth we will ultimately leave people hopeless.

I would like my Christian friends to examine how honest we are about the realities of life. If we pretend that our Christian lives are always prosperous and positive where will people turn when they are deep in the bitterness of their grief and our claims don't match up with reality? Being honest with others requires that we are honest about this truth in our own lives; God doesn't always take the pain away, heal the sick loved one, or save the murder victim. It can be uncomfortable to face that we love a perfect God that doesn't make the world perfect. It's even harder to believe that He loves us and lets the world hurt us so deeply. He promises us that our treasures are stored in Heaven where death and decay cannot tarnish them. It's hard for me to even fathom being out of reach of pain and suffering, but I have all the hope in the world that someday that will be true for me. For now, I'm putting my hope in God and His promises that can't be taken away from me.

My earthly life is more meaningful knowing that this suffering isn't even a grain of sand in the vast desert of eternal life. I believe that we will have more peace in this life accepting that things will not be perfect on Earth and give more peace by being honest with others about it. Our hope is in knowing that God is present and working through our suffering so that someday our loved ones will know what it feels like to be loved by the perfect father. My personal hope for the church is that we reflect the truth that Jesus lived rather than the positive church culture that we are seeing in the modern church so that when the world grieves we can offer them a real hope and not another disappointment.