I work at Duke’s public policy school, and as you can imagine, the weeks after an election can be total chaos. No matter who wins, there are many people who have had their dreams crushed, and everyone has to recalculate their career plans. I have spent a lot of time since Nov. 5th counseling and consoling—and talking about hope. Whatever party, platform, plans, or dreams people started with, these are not the answer.
For the past two days, I’ve been reflecting on Abram and Sarai’s story (later, renamed Abraham and Sarah), and their struggle to find hope. Abraham’s father, Terah, had lost one of his sons. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, had lost his father, and Abraham and Sarah were childless, a huge disappointment. The family had started to move, but they soon bogged down (Genesis 11:27-32).
God’s call in the midst of these heartaches was to move forward. God asked Abram to break through the inertia, head somewhere now, and unlearn the ways of the people around them. It was not an easy path, and Abraham and Sarah did not walk it perfectly. But they went. Their hope was not in the past, and it was not super far away.
As I think about their story, it makes me wonder:
- If the news leaves me scared (or even just jaded), what did I expect different?
- What ideas and values is the world pushing that I need to reject, and what does gracious rejection of these ideas look like?
- What does it mean to “fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”? (1 Peter 1:13)
Resources
- For a short Bible Study on hope, please check Dean’s website, human365.
- For more on “simple hope,” please check A Living Hope (podcast) by Tim Mackie.
