Phillies fans are ecstatic, at least the one fan in my Early Morning Bible Study. Cliff Lee is back in Philadelphia. The Yankee fans are bummed, including the two in my Bible study. The other two uncommitted were nonplussed. I am a Tigers fan who had no expectation of landing Lee. I am just grateful that he is no longer with the Rangers. We'll have to get to World Series to need to worry about Cliff Lee's ridiculously low ERA. (Side note: The Tigers did rough him up for 2 runs in yesterday's spring training contest.)
It is amazing how in the sports world a single player can be identified with tremendous hope. Persons who want to see victory or World Series rings or Super Bowl trophies or World Cups need hope in order to function. Unfortunately it doesn't always turn out that way. (Think Donovan McNabb and Washington Redskins or Brett Farve and New York Jets).
Sports fans(atics) are not the only people who require hope to function. Consider these quotes:
~ To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it. ~Mother Theresa
~ Beware how you take away hope from any human being. ~Oliver Wendall Holmes
~ He who loses money, loses much; He who loses a friend, loses much more; He who loses faith, loses all. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
~ Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up. ~ Annie Lamont
~ Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable. ~Samuel Johnson
~ To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to death. ~Pearl S. Buck
The Christian faith is all about hope. From its roots in the Old Testament come these words: "The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” - Lamentations 3:19-24
From the New Testament these: "In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead .. Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed." - 1 Peter 1:3,13
A Christian lives in hope. Not because they want to win but because their lives have been transformed. A Christian believes that despite any short-coming, past failures, ever present sin - that their lives can be new, holy and whole, and eternal because Jesus Christ came into the world and delivered them from sin's penalties and powers by His death on the Cross. And that hope is firmly embedded when he walked out of the Tomb.
This is not a motivation idea for a Christian. It is a reality rooted in an actual historic event. And it is a hope that is further confirmed when we see Christ at the end of this life and this world. Long before Christ, a prophet named Isaiah declared: "but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." - Isaiah 40:31
Genuine Christians are people who possess a living hope in their relationship with Christ and whose lives are shaped by that hope to bring hope to others.
(C) 2011 by Stephen L Dunn
This originally appeared as a post on LIFE MATTERS. March 2, 2011
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