The Easter season is marked with hope. For Christians, this time is the reason for any of our hope, period. Two thousand years ago, God became man in the person of Jesus, and he grew up and taught us how to live, and healed our infirmities and our relationships, and then he died for us. Most importantly, he lived again for us, to give us hope and a future, to prove his love and fidelity. He lives and loves still, mightily and powerfully, yet gently.
I would even say this season is not only marked with hope, but it dares us to have hope, and to rejoice, because Jesus, who died, who should have been dead forever, rose to new life and promised to give us the same future if we love him, love each other, and teach others to be his disciples.
Easter dares us to hope, in the midst of any circumstance, good or bad.
But what if the passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord feels more like a remote historical event than the source and reason for my hope? How do I hold onto hope in the midst of daily life, two thousand years after Jesus’ time on earth, when no matter how much or little I pray, certain things seem to never change?
(Keep in mind, as I write this, pretty much everything is going right in my life. These questions are not based on my circumstances, but on a deep knowledge that no matter how “right” things are, there are still parts of my heart that are on the verge of losing hope. I would venture to bet the same is true for you, no matter your age, circumstances, vocation, or state in life.)
Some may say, “Know Jesus better.” And I would say, “Yes!” We can never know Jesus too much; we can never be too intimate with the Lord. We can always pray more—true, authentic, from-the-heart prayer, not just a flood of mindless words. We can always contemplate Scripture more, invite the Holy Spirit into our lives more.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes my relationship with Jesus and the rest of the Trinity feels more like a theory than an actual, concrete experience. So even though an answer to the how-do-I-hold-onto-hope question certainly is “Know Jesus better!,” some of us feel like we know him pretty well. We’ve seen and experienced his faithfulness. We certainly love him very much, and are confident his love is greater still.
And yet.
The need to move from theoretical, stuck-in-the-pages-of-my-Bible Jesus to real life, actual, physical, moving, acting, realer-than-real, love-of-my-life Jesus is legitimate. Otherwise my hope, just like my heart, will stay stagnant, canned, sterile. It will do me no good when life gets messy. It will do me no good even when things are just right and questions linger.
How do we hold onto hope?
