Hope

Hope

An undervalued currency

“That despair generating anxiety, is acted out in many ways in our society, of which I will identify five:

• Anxiety is acted out as unsustained greed…
• Anxiety is acted out as privation…
• Anxiety is acted out as willing violence…
• Anxiety is acted out as nostalgia for the ‘good old days’ of a simpler life…
• Anxiety performed as greed, privatism, violence and nostalgia takes place in a pervasive sense of ‘end time’

In the midst of near-despair, the prophetic task is to articulate hope, the prospect of fresh historical possibility assured by God’s good governance of the future” 

Walter Brueggemann;

Reality, Grief and Hope

Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks

So I will let you into a little secret.

When I was around 14 years old, many of my friends started surfing. The appeal of this intoxicating sport grabbed us. Well that is not fully true. I wanted it to grab me. The picture of a surfboard tied to the top of my car grabbed me. The gorgeous girls who adorned the beaches of our subtropical paradise, grabbed me. The notion of one day having long, unbleached hair that is considered so iconic for this culture grabbed me. It never came to be.

I was caught hitch hiking to the beach by my mother. And that was that. Discipline “surfers are dope smokers”, and my great but brief flirtation with surfing ended.

Well not really. I have loved the sub-culture with all its beachy beauty. The casual style, the seemingly never-ending pursuit of the endless summer was a dream, along with fires on the beach, surfboards in the sand and sunbaked bodies…sigh!

There is a deep angst in the heart of man. My 35 years of vocational ministry has sharpened my heart to feel the pain and turbulence in man’s quest to do life. As Brueggermann wisely scripts out his five areas of anxiety, it explains our weighed down souls in the face of such adversity.

My father’s heart, daily feels the brutality of my young community. Meeting with them in the various craft coffee joints in Costa Mesa, reveals their brave battle seeking to wrestle down the pangs of uncertainty, that their future holds. Their nation, once the bold bastion of biblically authored democracy has been undermined by the cold political rhetoric of party line policies. A nation once the paradise destiny of the refugee and dreamer, has become a cauldron of chaos and division. The rising property prices, matched with huge student loans, makes job selection no longer one of adventure but of survival. 

Our pulpits try to carry these fragmented souls with the vocabulary of social justice and faith. Young millennial pastors are seeking to find solutions amidst their long beards and craft beer, for the travail of our souls. We Boomer pastors can lose ourselves in the rhythms of yesteryear, as the challenges of our current cultural context is too tough to bare.

Then …I read an article about a young Aussie couple. They have checked out of the mainstream of this brutal narrative. They buy VW vans, she redesigns the interior, he rebuilds them, and with that money they travel Australia… surfing. So, guess what, I saved the article. I reread the article over and over again. There it is right there. Get on the road. Never mind  the fact that I don’t surf (I just like the culture), I cannot cut a piece of wood accurately, nor drive a screw in straight. Never mind that Meryl and I are a 1000 miles away from minimalism (but we do have minimalist friends and family - does that count?) But dare we dream to just get away from to all? Or…

Hope is such an undervalued currency.  In a church world where faith is the older brother, hope is a poor cousin, it seems. In a culture where conflict and angry division is the norm, hope is frowned upon as romantic and cute but with no basis for reality…it is not a thing. In the broken hearts of a generation who want “permission to lament” (Todd Proctor), hope is the name of a girl not the primary franchise of the soul.

When Paul, our great educator and community creator, writes of “faith, hope and love” (1 Cor 13;13, Col 1:4, 1 Thess 1:3), he writes with deep affection of each of these heart postures. A heart fashioned by love is a beautiful heart. A spirit enflamed by faith is compelling and intoxicating. But what about hope?

Hope is an exquisite fragrance. It is the anti-anxiety essence. Hope is a smile in our eyes in the desperate din of global uncertainty. Hope is a brief look heavenward as if to share a secret, even when things look bleak. Hope leaks into the heart when a family member cannot break an addiction or a friend makes bad choices. Hope is not held captive to these. Because of where our hope lies, it does not grow weary nor lose heart. Hope is in His name..

Hope is born out of a knowledge of who God the Father is. Hope is a character-driven reality. It gifts the person eyes to see beyond the horizon of uncertainty with the “knowledge of the holy”. It does not have the privilege of facts, nor of prophecy but finds its certainty in Him.  Hope lifts the eyes because it has another confidence - He lives, he intercedes on my behalf, he will never leave me nor forsake me, he is coming back for me…

So, for now I don’t need my VW van. I don’t need to escape to the limitless beaches of an endless summer. I have hope and she is a beautiful navigator.