Articles
Hope Is Not Canceled
I saw this and thought it was very good. “Hope Is not canceled.” Also, “Just as quickly as things can change for the worse, they can change for the better. Never give up hope.”
Why would we give up hope? Why would we think the Celebrity Virus is going to overcome? Of all things to ever think about stopping a nation, I doubt this was high on anybody’s list. Are we not narrowly focused? We focus on what is right before our eyes and lose sight on the bigger picture. Our twenty-four-hour sensational news cycles do not help us. That is not new either. Esau thought in twenty-four hours he was going to be dead. Nobody dies from missing one meal.
It is vitally important we stay connected to our hope. Our hope is not in a virus, antibodies, or vaccine. Our hope is in One who is greater than of all those combined. Our hope is a risen Lord and a God who cannot lie. His promises give us hope, which are the anchor of our soul. As we sing, we need something steadfast and sure. Our own weaknesses, fickleness, and momentary despair do not provide solid ground. They are worse than the sinking sand.
“Hope is not canceled.” We have a solid faith that undergirds our hope. It was that faith that enable Abraham to see that city whose builder and maker is God. Is it possible we pay so much attention to COVID-19 and its corollaries that we forget our faith and lose our hope? Pandemics cause us to walk by sight. The question asked daily is what are the numbers? Have we hit the peak? Have we flattened the curve? Rather ask, is God still God? Is God still on His throne? Is He greater than any virus? Is faith still real? Is hope still an anchor?
Consider, what are we looking for and what are we looking at? Is it any wonder there is so much despair when God is so little involved in so many lives? First responders and those who risk their lives, not only now but every day, are more than worthy of our gratitude. But our strength is not in first responders, not in the CDC and the World Health Organization. It is not even in the United States of America. Our confidence and hope are in our God who knows our every care, and He cares. If we humble ourselves before Him, He will lift us up. He is not so much concerned with how COVID-19 affects our lives as He is with how sin affects our lives. One affects the body and the body only. The other affects the soul. Soul sickness is much worse than COVID-19 sickness.
Please let me beg each one us to lift our eyes toward God. We say, “I know,” but we must do it. Our citizenship is not here. Remember we are pilgrims here anyway. Life and death have always been part of life under the sun. As long as the prince of the power of the air has this world in his lap, it will be that way. He is sitting back laughing himself silly. He is asking, “Is this all it took for me to have people take their eyes off God? If I had known it would be this easy, I would have done this years ago. Oh, wait, I did. Now I remember why I have not tried this in a while. I did back in 1918-1920 and from 2005-2012, and it soon passed. It only works for a little while then the emergency will be over. I need something more permanent. I will go back to using indifference. It works a whole lot better and much longer.”
There are whole lot of things that have been canceled today but, “Hope has not been canceled.” Hope is present in a group of two, ten, fifty or four hundred. Hope is not worried about becoming infected. And because hope has not been canceled, hope is still alive and working in our lives today. Hope has not called in sick. Hope is not stuck with stay at home. Hope is not isolated. Hope transcends all of this. It is still our anchor.
Rickie Jenkins
