The Silent Shift in Christian Hope

That’s a wrap people. Let’s pack it up. This one’s over. The people of God have, en masse, bought into pursuing their best life. We have officially moved our hope from the coming of the Lord Jesus and the glory that awaits in His Kingdom, and we have settled for pursuing the best this life can offer.

Loss of Hope and a Meaner Nation

How ironic it is that this seismic shift has gone unnoticed. The people of God have lost their hope, and we have hardly noticed. The culture probably never knew how much the hope of the people of God undergirded the social structures of the country. We should have known. Our hope for the future became the hope of a nation. But without that hope we have become an insatiable, meaner, less civil people. We used to strive to live up to the high calling of one day living in the kingdom of God. We used to try to love our neighbor and speak the truth in love. Now we callously call it political correctness, and prefer the company of those who tell it like it is, and not those who, in hope, tell it like it can and will be.

YOLO And Eternal Life

You can argue that we are just making the most of our lives. That we are simply trying to make this life the best it can be, until Christ returns. But we don’t live like pilgrims, we live like settlers. The sense of urgency and the white hot pursuit of our “best” life, suggests a hopeless view of the future; when it will be too late. We live in desperation, like we believe we are running out of time. We must eat drink and be merry now, for tomorrow we die. We have apprehended the culture’s hopeless hashtag; #yolo. We have lost our hope that we will live forever, or if we die, that we will live again. It seems it’s a wrap.

A Return to Hope

Hopefully you’ve been able to see through my satirical tone. I don’t really believe it’s a wrap. I do believe, however, that to focus so much on living our best life, is to move from the sure place of our hope. Hope in Christ for our best life is not the same as hope in His sure return and the life to come with Him in the Kingdom. I also believe if we return to the hope of the kingdom and to practicing the values of that coming kingdom, it will have a seismic affect upon an increasingly hopeless culture. We are the salt of the earth. Let’s set the example of lives lived in higher pursuits, higher than the temporary pleasures of this world. Let’s live in pursuit of the Kingdom.

**Repost**