To say that things here have been busy is an understatement. Although, I cannot deny that my tendency to accept additional opportunities on a day to day basis doesn’t help. And I know that in all honesty, I would not have it any other way.
I have been learning and growing a great deal through my classes and independent studies, and I shall share my findings at a later time. But for now there is a story that I want to pass on that was told to me by one of my friends after an eventful trip on one of Chicago’s inner city trains..
She said that while aboard the train a man, visibly drunk, began talking about himself and his life. His words were often short of comprehensibility, but then he clearly spoke, almost directly to her. With a certain level of sincerity he said, “Do you know what the level beyond insanity is? Hopelessness. And that is where I live.” Given his condition this was especially profound.
According to this man, being insane is better than being hopeless, and I believe that our society as a whole would agree. To be insane indicates a lack of normality and a surplus of idiocy. But if hope dwells in the midst of these things, who cares? What classifies being “normal” anyways? A hope-filled fool is still a fool, but somehow he’s a fool that some will be jealous of. Somehow others will still long for the satisfaction that he has despite his folly. The opposite is true for similar reasons. A hopeless rich man is still rich, but somehow none of it matters if at the end of the day his things try to satisfy him in vain. And those who are jealous of these men will pursue their lifestyles, only to be left just as empty handed.
The conclusion that hope trumps insanity and lives of wealth and fame carries very interesting implications. Consider for a moment the questions “what is man’s purpose in life?”, or “why does man exist?” Does not the answer have something to do with hope? Is it a mere coincidence that within mankind all long for it in a certain way? I once heard someone say that all men live as though there is a God. I suppose this universal longing that man wrestles with is just one of the ways in which this quote is proven true. All men want safety and security and perfect fellowship and to be loved and to no longer experience pain…aka they want Heaven. Exactly what God has designed for men is the fulfillment of their every desire. But the devil is very good at what he does. His power to convince people that they can find hope for themselves creates a vicious cycle, and at some point, it always fails to satisfy.
It is more clear to me why Paul would command people to think of things that are true and noble (etc.), for with these thoughts we fight for hope and crush the enemy’s attempts to kill it. The battle for hope is just one of the ways that we participate in the greater Spiritual war that exists. As John Piper would say, “Life is war. That is not all it is, but it is always that.” We have got to fight for hope, because there are a lot more people out there who need it than just the man on the train.
Let’s take 1 Peter 3:15 seriously. But before we can give reason for our hope, we must have it in the first place. Study the implications of the surrounding verese in 1 Peter 3..you'll be amazed.
Blessings.
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