Hope in Christ

"Welcome to fear, said Moist to himself. It's hope, turned inside out." - Going Postal  

Lots of people are having a really bad day for lots of reasons. I'd love to give you specifics, but there are simply too many. If you glance at the news, I'm sure you'll find something that will truly piss on your pancakes too, and then you can join all the people having a bad day.

My dad called this morning, just before the internet crashed, and we talked about bad days. I mentioned hope in Christ, and he pointed out (as I have done so, so many times before) why that doesn't really answer for the emotions of the moment. 

I didn't point out the irony of our sudden role reversal, but I have been wondering what I meant by it.

I think most hope is false: the delusional belief that something will go right. It won't, you know. In The Wee Free Men, Terry Pratchett points out that "If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy." His argument is pithy, and a bit of a straw man. If you don't have some belief first, then you won't necessarily put your work in the right direction. But false hope is worse than none at all.

Christianity sometimes gets digested and excreted as a giant pile of false hope on a flowery placard in really bad calligraphy. But although we have been promised light in dark times, Jesus doesn't seem to teach His people to throw belief around wildly. He means us to put our hope in His Atonement.

My dad pointed out that that kind of hope almost always means waiting on the Lord's timeline. Sure - if you're limiting hope to some specific kind of justice or relief from tribulation - that's absolutely true. But "be patient" is just a jerk thing to say, and Jesus might say it sometimes, but I think that hope in Christ offers emotional relief in the moment, not just a vague "someday it'll all be okay" sentiment.

And that's what I couldn't or didn't bother to say earlier today, but I mean to go to the scriptures right now and see what they say.

Psalms and Proverbs have some sweet things to say about hope, but those books are inspirational poetry, rather than doctrine. They're sometimes deep-cutting, but often the flowery-placard version of religion. I do not find them comforting, although it can bring joy and hope to read sincere expressions of faith, especially from someone who has known his own damnation.

Paul has some interesting things to say about hope. To the Corinthians (9:9-19), he points out that those who labor for the church have traditionally and metaphorically hoped to live off the church - that is, to be paid clergy. Paul points out further that he has declined such an income, preaching to the converted, in order to gain converts among all people he traveled to. He acts in a specific way for hope of a better prize: an incorruptible crown (25).

To the Hebrews (chapter 6) the apostle writes about covenants, and how they reassure us that God does not lie, and the promises are sure. We do not have to "wait and see," but we can act now as if they have already come to pass (and truly, the Atonement of Jesus Christ has). The verses say it so beautifully: "That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil" (18-19). An anchor of the soul - that is comforting. That is a "now" comfort.

The temples are closed right now, and so the reminders are not so immediate, but those covenants do not need to be renewed. They are dependent only on our striving, on our endurance to run Paul's race. And those promises give us immediate relief from the anxieties and sorrows of today. Not to remove them, because some sorrow is needed, but an anchor to hold us while the tides and tempests move.

I have written a lot, and I didn't even get to the Book of Mormon. Perhaps I will continue this thought again later. Look to the temple, to your memories of it, to your friendship with God, to see through and past the fogs of despair that roll in daily. And reach out a hand to those who need to borrow your anchor.