What Good is Hope?

Two young men dead in the last week. Both known to my son. One was known to me. They guy I knew died of an overdose and we do not know if that was intentional or an accident. The other was beaten to death and dumped outside the city Two stories in a litany of seeming hopelessness in our culture around drugs and violence.

Could hope have shown up for these young men? Could Jesus have been ‘hope’ to them?



Wonderful “words” warm our heart this Christmas season as we talk of Jesus as the ‘hope of the world’. How nice & even charming. However, Jesus The Hope of the World is not some ethereal, ‘spiritual’ or merely future reality. His hope ‘showed up’ when He showed up on earth. He did not merely talk and preach hope. If He came to us today (and He does), He would show up in the ditches, drug houses, dysfunction and desperation where humanity lives and struggles.


WHERE DO YOU SHOW UP?
 

Jesus is the hope of the world ONLY if we who claim to be His ambassadors show up in our actions to address the issues with which our society struggles.


I recently came across the Hebrew phrase “tikkun olam”. It means ‘repairing the world’. God intends to restore and repair the world. He signaled that intention soon after humankind broke their relationship with Him by promising a Redeemer, a “Repairer of the World”. He then sealed the deal when Jesus came to the earth to usher in a new way of being; a renewed Kingdom order. Jesus is not just a representative or figurehead of hope. His life & His ways actually deliver hope in the now.


BUT…


…unless and until we get out of the confines of current church practice, or organizational and business 'arms length' charity, to be with the poor, to advocate for the oppressed, to give shelter to the lonely and come alongside those rejected by society, to walk the hard road with an addict, to engender positive identity in a young person etc., then HOPE has no currency. God Himself said that only once you have expressed these actions (which He considers as true worship – Is 58) can you be known as the repairer of walls and purveyors of real, tangible, life-changing hope.


This season, find a way to BE hope to the world. The Jesus in you is real, tangible hope.


And maybe we can save the next two kids.

Building a Future That is Not Your Own OR, "Yes, We Have NO Bananas"

Did you know the banana you eat is in danger?   

One type of banana, the Cavendish, dominates the global market.  95% of the N American market consumes the Cavendish banana and a disease that could wipe it out threatens it.  That’s the problem with the commercialization of fruit.  Genetic diversity is sacrificed for any type that will maximize productivity, durability, & profit.  If that disease does take hold, goodbye Cavendish.  Will there be a ‘hello’ to a new type?   Perhaps, but it won’t come easy, or fast.

I was fascinated as I listened to a CBC documentary and further watched an (unlinked) episode by David Suzuki, on the effort it takes to produce a new variety of banana (or ANY fruit/vegetable).  In the case of the banana, it can take up to 10 years of experimentation, testing, failing, and waiting for a new variety to be produced.  Some people will work on these efforts and never see the ‘fruit’ of their labour.

Got me thinking: If I see a need for change, exactly how far ahead am I ready to commit myself?

We as leaders read all the time about ‘change’.  However, we usually have the expectation that the time window is months and at most a few years.

 

But 10 Years?

What if what you want to accomplish (and I think here especially about social change) is way out there?  Would you be ready to start towards something you might never see finish?  Other cultures and generations of the past seemed to be able to think further down the road than we do now in the Western world.  They thought generationally, often sacrificing their own comfort and future for the sake of the next generation(s).  Others fought against social justice issues for decades before seeing any change.  Think of the 40 years William Wilberforce battled entrenched slavery in England. 

Can significant change happen if it is trapped in the cultural expectation of “7 steps to…” or “40 days of…”?

For real, systemic change to occur I believe it  will take: 

• A conviction that change must occur.
• A decision that this is worth giving your life to implement.
• A readiness to set aside a lot of other short term, more immediately satisfying efforts to give attention to it.
• An ability to see life beyond today, tomorrow or even the next decade. 
• A sense of the ‘rightness’ of what you are committing to do.
• A readiness to unselfishly & deliberately hand over your ‘project’ because you are OK being a prophet of a future that is not your own.

Harv Matchullis

Designer, Developer, Dreamer, Devoted to things that matter.