Day 10: But hope’s in the Bible, so c’mon…

As I think about hope in a new way, when I tell people I’m thinking about hope like this, it’s clear that it goes against the grain.  There’s a lot of talk about hope in the Bible.  It’s one of the three things that remain, right?  Faith, hope, and love.  And those who hope in the Lord will be renewed.  The Lord has plans to give you hope and a future.  There are tons of quotes from Scripture about hope that could kind of cross into toxic positivity if we’re not careful.

And I guess there’s the argument that it’s our job to hope and that really what we all hope for is an ultimate communion with or immersion into or dissolution through God.  Some might say that’s the point of being Christian.

But all that talk about hope?  That’s not actually Jesus talking.  It’s Old Testament prophets or poets or song-writers.  Or it’s New Testament people who knew Jesus and tried to make sense of him.  I don’t think Jesus himself actually says much about hope.  He does talk about eternal life and the kingdom of God and stuff like that, but mostly Jesus strikes me as a guy who was really living in the moment.  In fact, he seemed to think the Kingdom of God should be something in the right now, not just something in the future. 

Of all the things people wanted from Jesus, what they wanted most was his attention.  And he gave it.  He lavished it on everyone, even people who the world thought didn’t deserve it.  Maybe that’s the whole point: it’s worth our attention.  Whatever is in the now, the right in front of us, is worth our attention. 

Jesus paid full attention to the people in front of him. Jesus saw important people and plain people.  He saw the people who put on a show and the people who didn’t want to be seen.  He saw Zaccheus in the tree, the woman at the well, Pontius Pilate, Nicodemus, the proud and the humble. 

(He also paid attention to his need to get away and rest a bit.  Sometimes when I get super frustrated with him, I remember that he was likely an introvert who was in high demand, and that helps soften my heart toward him a bit.)

Jesus does not strike me as a man who is distracted, not even by hope.  He doesn’t seem to gaze across the crowd, hoping to find anything in particular.  He just takes in what’s in front of him and does what he can to make it better.  What’s in front of him might not be pretty, but it’s always better off for his attention.  Jesus leaves things better than he found them by being in that moment. 

It’s amazing how often Jesus is reported to have known what was going on inside people, in their hearts.  So often I see what I’m looking for, but I don’t think Jesus did that.  And because he wasn’t looking with an agenda, he saw what was actually there.  In that very moment. 

Maybe what I’m getting at is that holding attention in the present is more important (and more impactful) than holding hope in the future.  It’s in the Bible.