Found this great blog post today by a man named Ravi Zacharius. (Thanks to Jonathan for recommending him to me). He's got a TON of cool stuff to offer. His website is full of Apologists and Scholars with libraries of articles and podcasts. If you'd like to check it out-- www.rzim.org.
I was coasting through posts and found this one... http://www.rzim.org/just-thinking/think-again-4/. It's basically Ravi's thoughts on hope. Hope for individuals, hope for our generation, and hope for the world. He's pretty laid back, but has great stuff to say.
The whole post is really in response to a college student who points out that the state of the world is rapidly declining. The student asks Ravi if he thinks there's hope. Ravi's response is this: "As I travel the globe speaking and listening to so many voices, I am utterly convinced that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for our troubled world."
As pain and hurt are magnified in this world, so is the healing power of Christ. As the bad gets worse, the good in Christ can only get better. The question then is, are we really pursuing hope? For those of us in these sorts of privileged situations (Pretty much all American believers), do we really care about spreading hope to those who have none? Or do we hoard it to ourselves?
Zacharius also brings up Psalm 119: God's word is a lamp for our feet, a light on our path. Without him, we're in darkness. That light doesn't mean that the path is full of flowers and kumbayah- it just means that Jesus is with us through thick and thin. Whether rocky or smooth- he's showing us where we need to go.
I find this post extremely applicable, mostly because in economics we've been talking about the national debt, and all that it entails as far as our country's well being goes. It's scary to think about where the world is headed. Bad stuff happens. Whether globally or close to home- there's no escaping it. It feels overwhelming sometimes. World hunger. National Debt. Slavery. Piracy. War. Famine. You name it. There's no quick fix to poof away the problems. Stuff like this seems impossible- and really, it is. As a whole, this stuff isn't going away. There's hope though- in Christ. Not to eliminate every last bit of it- but to spread an equally overwhelming dose of hope over these issues. Little things, big things, medium sized things- they all matter. As Christians, we're not called to get rid of these things by ourselves. We're called to share the love of Christ, and rely on the power of the Holy Spirit. The next time you feel a wave of helplessness coming on- don't forget- the God of the universe has us in the palm of his hand, and he's got stuff under control.
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