I was recently asked these
questions by a good friend of mine and here are my answers. When I look at the
world, even out here in totally different places, I see the same patterns in
the overall society. People going about there lives trying to reach something,
something that will fulfill them. I see people sometimes happy, sometimes
desperate, sometimes eager, sometimes depressed, sometimes just not much of
anything at all, but they all need and are looking for the same thing: Hope. 
In the first world it is usually
something like a higher pay grade, that other person who will just complete
their life, the career or occupation that will just be everything they want to
do, a new boat or car that will just make life more happy… are those things
wrong? No not really, it’s fine to have those things, but they never seem to be
enough. I have seen and known people who get them all, and they are self
admittedly still not satisfied or fulfilled or even truly happy. They still
have trouble in their marriages, they still find themselves in great dept, they
still struggle with relationships with other people… Just an example; Why would
a guy who has a good career, a wife of 20+ years and 2 kids go out and have an
affair with a college kid and throw all that away? So he moves in with the
college girl, buys a Jaguar and is pulling down six figures but can’t sleep at
night because he is so desperate to know his now grown kids who want nothing to
do with him because he abandoned them. He is miserable. He is like a great king
who lived once and had everything the world has to offer, money, power, women,
children, lands, houses, but at the end of his life all he could say was
“worthless, all is worthless.” We are all looking for something more, we all
want Hope for the future.
In the third world it is a little simpler
to see it outright. People are just trying to survive. Their concerns are more
along the lines of “will I eat today?” or often times “will my family eat
today?” Their need for hope is evident from one glance at their face. What
about a 13 year old child who has HIV and will likely die before reaching 20?
What are they looking for? There is another pattern that all of these people
share and I think if we are honest, we share it too, we are all looking ahead,
even if one looks 10 
years and the other only a day. And what of death? That
thing that every one of us sees in the future, first world or third. That thing
none of us can avoid try as we might to ignore it or put it off. That wretched
reality that we are constantly moving towards that will end it all for us. What
are we trying to see in that future we are looking at? Hope. Hope that that
future will be good. So what then do we have to Hope in?
Well this is where many people turn
to religion for answers. In most religions, some higher purpose, power, or
entity is out there either controlling things or has the power to do so and in
that we hope that some way we can prevail upon that power to save us from our
helpless fait. Many people believe in some sort of heaven or afterlife that
will be wonderful for those who are good people. What is a good person though?
Most religions offer this kind of a reward in return for good works, or living
by some set of rules and instructions. The problem is that no one can live
their entire life flawlessly and blameless in order to attain such a reward. If
you can, more power to you but I have yet to meet anyone who fits that
description save one. I know for my part, I was 5 years old and had already
lied, cheated, stolen… all things that pretty much every religion classifies as
traits of a bad person, deal breakers for being qualified to get into that
heaven for good people. Even the very highest and wisest teachers of these
religions will tell you that all you can do is try. I could go my whole life
trying to live to some set of standards and doing good all the time but I would
still be afraid on my death bed. “Did I do enough? Did I mess up somewhere that
disqualifies me?” That is not hope for me.
What are my desires then? To live
in freedom from my mistakes and sins. To never fear that this is all there is
and at any moment it could be taken from me. To have something true to tell the
orphan who was rejected by the world or the HIV victim who is staring their
doom in the face. To be able to walk up to 
someone and shake their hand and
smile and tell them that everything is going to work out and know for sure that
I’m not lying to them. To be able to comfort my child when they wake up in the
middle of the night crying from a nightmare saying “what’s gonna happen to us daddy?”
Would I like to have everything the world has to offer, money, power, friends,
cars, houses…? Yeah I would, but if I couldn’t answer my child in that moment
and know that what I tell them is true, I would not be happy or fulfilled or
have what I really want. So how do I have these things?
I can only attest to what I have
found and experienced myself. The God of the Bible is the only solution to
these things that I can find on earth. He offers complete freedom from sins and
fear and even death through His son Jesus Christ at completely no cost or
requirement except that you believe it and except it. Its not words that you
utter or an action you perform, it is a decision you make in your heart; to ask
for and accept forgiveness from Him and to love and live in relationship with
Him. That is what He desires. These words are known well but they speak of what
God desires and why He is the Hope for the world. “For God Loved the world so
much, that He gave His only son, that who ever believes in Him will not perish
but have everlasting life. God did not send His son into the world to condemn
it, but to save it.” I have hope in this because I know that no matter what,
God loves me and will take care of me and that I will go to be with Him when I
die. Even if bad things happen to me and my life here sucks at times He
promises “that He works all things together for good for those who Love God.”
I can tell my child, and the person
dying of aids that it will be ok because Jesus paid the price for the bad
things we have done, and loves us for the good things we’ve done, and that
because we love Him, even when we die, we will live together with each other
and Him forever. This is true hope. I can feed an orphan, shake a man’s hand
who is feeling hopeless, help paint an old gypsy man’s house and know that
these things matter because there is hope for the future beyond this life. But
it is not just for the future. God desires relationship with us now. I have
experienced this for myself. I have talked to Him and gotten an answer. I have
seen things happen that cannot happen or be explained within the laws of nature
or possibility. I have felt Him give me peace when I was feeling overwhelmed
with worries. It has happened for me. It is amazing, I can’t imagine living without
it.
I get things that I want to have as
well. Jesus said “Who among you would, if your son asked for a fish, would give
him a snake, or if he asked for an egg would give him a scorpion? If you who
are imperfect know how to give good things to your children, how much more does
your father in heaven who is perfect know how to give good things to those who
love him.” I have always been fascinated with far away places and wanted to
travel the world. I would dream that maybe some day I would get to go to a
foreign country but the thought of getting to go all the way around the world
and see the places I have only ever seen on postcards was beyond my wildest
dreams. Well I have found that the god I serve is in the business of wildest
dreams. Here I am, getting to see the world, meet its people, experience its
thrills and wonders and not in a vacation setting. I’m supposed to be here. During
an unexpected two days in the beautiful city of Budapest,
Hungary,
all I could think was that God really does know how to give good gifts to His
children. I am so fulfilled and satisfied with this trip I’m on because it is
everything I have wanted to do, and I know I wouldn’t be if I were just out
here for myself seeing the sights. That would be great, but it would be over in
a day. What God has me doing out here fulfills my very being. I’ve learned that
the things in my life that I desire are designed into me for a purpose. I
always thought there was some mundane single task or vocation that I was gonna
be called (or in my mind doomed) to and that traveling the world and having
adventures were whimsical fantasies. Not the case. God wants us to have these
things. “Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your
heart.” It’s true. He is giving me the desires of my heart. “Commit your way to
the Lord and He will do it.”
This is not a set of rules I have
to follow, or any prayers I have to pray. It’s not really religious for me. It
is more than just a spiritual practice or something I do only in my spirit. It’s
not really just spiritual to me. It’s traveling the world chopping wood for a
gypsy in Romania and seeing the smile and hope in their face when I tell them
Jesus sent me to help them, and seeing in Ireland an 11 year old boy’s face
change and behavior become kind and friendly saying that he wants to know
Jesus, when one day earlier he was
angry at his friend for taking the big beach
ball from him and swinging punches at him with hate in his eyes. It’s watching
an alcoholic college student in America
who planned to drive her car off a cliff that very night weep for joy,
completely full of hope because she knows that someone loves her because Jesus
loves her and that her life is a beautiful and wonderful thing. It’s watching a
teenager with HIV in Africa run and laugh and
be kind to younger children and not fear death because they know that this life
is not the end and that there is good and happiness and hope in God even now in
this time in this world. That is what I see of the world, and to keep seeing it
is my desire.
