By Steve Horn
Hopelessness is the enemy of faith. We all need hope.
When I think about hope I always think about a story about the little boy playing Little League baseball. He is out in the field when his father arrives late for the game.
Through the fence his father asks, “What’s the score?” “18-0!” says the little boy, “We’re losing.” Trying to offer comfort his dad says, “I’m sorry, son.” With the hope only a Little Leaguer could have, he answers back, “Don’t worry, Dad, we haven’t even got up to bat yet!”
Now that’s hope.
Billy Graham once said, “The greatest need in our world today is the need for hope. We thrive on hope, we rejoice in hope, we witness in hope, knowing that experience works hope. ‘Happy is he . . . whose hope is in the Lord his God (Psalm 146:5).’ There is hope for the future. It is centered in the Person of Jesus Christ who died for our sins and rose from the grave and is alive now. I have staked all that I am or ever hope to be on Him.”
At yet another occasion, Graham said, “Faith points us beyond our problems to the hope we have in Christ.”
When Jesus is our “hope,” we have more than hope as the world defines hope. We have a rock solid guarantee.
Steve Horn is pastor of First Baptist Church in Lafayette and a past Louisiana Baptist Convention president. This editorial first appeared on his blog.
