For many, the prospect of a New Year, somehow, will usher in better things than the year that just ended. For them, it just has to be so! But what is this optimistic hope of better things to come based on? Feelings, politics, positive thinking? That kind of optimism fluctuates and is fleeting. It has no anchored basis for it. Others just see things getting worse: more debt, getting older, getting sick, or sicker, et al.
Optimistic and pessimistic outlooks are fundamentally tied to one’s worldview. Some see this life as all there really is with its ever-changing circumstances, and the roller coaster feelings of optimism and pessimism, but with no thoughts of an afterlife. Others have the hope of a “heaven”, a kind of default destination if you’ve lived a good life and have been doing the best you can.
There was a woman who was paralyzed from her neck down with MS for twenty-plus years. Her loving, care-giving husband couldn’t understand why she, a good person, should suffer. She simply responded to him with, “Why not me?” Not fatalism, or stoicism. She was genuinely optimistic. For one thing, she knew her condition would finally end at her death.
But there was more, much more. She had hope, a real hope, not a hope-so, but a firm hope based on a real abiding, God-given faith. She had that faith described In God’s word: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). For her and others, that hope was grounded in her Savior and Lord Jesus Christ who had come into this fallen world to do what was necessary in order for God to forgive sinners, and give them eternal life in the new heavens and new earth which Christ will usher in at His return. That sure hope enabled her to have a down-deep peace and joy, a real contentment.
She embraced, as have others, the reality that, “…the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you… In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials… receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:3-9).
Optimistic and pessimistic outlooks are fundamentally tied to one’s worldview. Some see this life as all there really is with its ever-changing circumstances, and the roller coaster feelings of optimism and pessimism, but with no thoughts of an afterlife. Others have the hope of a “heaven”, a kind of default destination if you’ve lived a good life and have been doing the best you can.
There was a woman who was paralyzed from her neck down with MS for twenty-plus years. Her loving, care-giving husband couldn’t understand why she, a good person, should suffer. She simply responded to him with, “Why not me?” Not fatalism, or stoicism. She was genuinely optimistic. For one thing, she knew her condition would finally end at her death.
But there was more, much more. She had hope, a real hope, not a hope-so, but a firm hope based on a real abiding, God-given faith. She had that faith described In God’s word: “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). For her and others, that hope was grounded in her Savior and Lord Jesus Christ who had come into this fallen world to do what was necessary in order for God to forgive sinners, and give them eternal life in the new heavens and new earth which Christ will usher in at His return. That sure hope enabled her to have a down-deep peace and joy, a real contentment.
She embraced, as have others, the reality that, “…the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you… In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials… receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:3-9).