Dear Friends:

As I write this, it is early morning on the first day of 2008. It feels like a blank slate, a new start, a moment in time when an entire calendar stretches in front of me waiting to be filled, to take a shape that is yet unknown.

How do you feel when you look at a new, undefined year? My prayer is that you feel hope. What do you hope for this year? A better job? More financial security? Good health? Reconciled relationships? A sense of worth or accomplishment? Usefulness in God’s kingdom?

These are all good things and things we should take to the Father in prayer. But, then, we need to leave them there and, whether or not the answers to our prayers are what we think we want most, we hang on to our hope. Why? Because, as Christians, our hope is not a “hope for” but a “hope in”. Our hope is in God. He, through Jesus Christ, has solved all our big problems – problems like sin, guilt, and separation from Him.

With those critical issues taken care of, everything else is just details:

Whether we live or die.
Whether we are healthy or sick.
Whether we are accepted or rejected.
Whether we have money in the bank or are in great need.
Whether the sun shines or it snows.

Remember Winnie-the-Pooh’s friend, Eeyore? The Disney website describes him as a “dismal donkey”. Yet, it goes on to say that he doesn’t see himself as gloomy. He just has low expectations. Do you know any Eeyore Christians? They take life pretty seriously, seldom smiling, always worrying, and never content. They are discouraged and pretty sure that they are not among God’s favorite children. They have pretty low expectations of what God will do for them. And their sad faces, hanging down heads and shuffling walks reveal their lack of hope.

Do we realize how bad we make God look when we live that way? It is as if He has access to everything we need and is unwilling to share it with us. We are letting the world around us know that we see Him as stingy and uncaring. But that, as we know, is not a true picture of our loving and generous Father in heaven.

Peter refocuses our attention on what really matters when he says,

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you.” (I Peter 1:3-4)

Eeyore Christians need a facelift. They need to turn their eyes toward God and put their hope in Him, believing that what Peter says is true: We have a brand-new life and everything to live for here on earth. But, more than that, we have a future in heaven. How can we possibly be discouraged or sad or hopeless when we think of all that God has given us and all that He promises for ever and ever?

Peter doesn’t stop there in his discussion of hope. Later he says,

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to given an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (I Peter 3:15a)

Now here’s a stunning realization: Do you know that no one has ever asked me the reason for the hope that I have? How about you? Have you ever been asked that question? If not, I guess we have to ask ourselves why. Doesn’t our hope show on our faces? Are we not living with confidence, cheerfulness and expectation? OR are we putting our hope in the same things that the rest of the world hopes for? Things such as reputation, self-satisfaction, bank accounts, health, a nice house, our kids’ accomplishments, the next vacation, and so on. If that is where our hope is, no wonder no one asks us for the reason it’s there. They understand that kind of hope because they are hoping in and for the same things!

But if our hope is in God, these things fade into the background. Then, having a nice house or a new car is not important. We can hope in God whether we are sick or well, whether we have lots of money or little, whether we get the job promotion or get laid off, whether the sun shines or it rains.

Our hope is in God who never changes, who has solved our overwhelming eternal problems, and has put us, through Jesus, into a joyous, fulfilling relationship with Him. When our lives begin to show where our real values are, where our true hope is, I think then people will begin to be curious about us because we will be different than they are.

This year, I want my hope to be in God alone. And I want to tell my face about it so that the hope that is inside me will show on the outside. And when people ask why I am so hopeful when there are wars and famines and earthquakes and assassinations in the world around me, I can tell them of a different world, God’s world – a world of hope and joy and unwavering trust in our all-powerful and all-loving God.

Maybe that’s something you want to think about, too.

Shalom to you in the new year!

Bev

P.S. If you know of others who would enjoy receiving this newsletter each month, please encourage them to visit my website (www.beverlyvankampen.com), click on the newsletter icon, and enter their e-mail address. I would love to add them to our circle of friends.