Where do you place your hope?

Yeah, it's been 4 months since I posted. Isn't it amazing how quickly bad habits form, yet good habits take so very long to take hold? Well the writing habit left in the blink of an eye, so now the effort begins to renew something I enjoy, something that is cathartic to a degree.

When I write or teach, I desire to create some tension. It's not a desire to be controversial, although that sometimes occurs. Really, it's to enable me to get out of my comfort zone, and in turn maybe move someone else out of their proverbial easy chair at the same time. So, if you read something that inspires a reaction - positive or negative - write back. I think the discourse that society engages in is beneficial, so long as people are polite, considerate, and empathetic to the other person's perspective.

What is motivating me to write today is the seemingly never ending Democratic primary season. What began many months ago as a foregone conclusion to coronate Hillary has become a brutal, negative, harsh, expensive quest for power among two battle-scarred combatants. While voters in Indiana and North Carolina have cast their votes today, it is certainly not the end of this fight.

And there is much to write about. Whether it is Clinton's ongoing negative campaign, or Obama's ties to a rhetorically combative pastor, I could write to the point of causing my fingers to bleed; yes, there is so much to discuss. But the key thing I want to touch on is something that came to my attention about a month ago.

I was speaking with a friend of mine that is a Obama supporter. In fact, I would say he is passionately so. I asked him why he felt such a strong affinity for this candidate that was only recently an unknown freshman Senator from Illinois. And like so many that have been asked this same question on a national basis, he responded simply. "I just think that he offers more hope than the other candidates."

This friend of mine is well educated and fairly progressive, so his support of Obama didn't surprise me. But it startled me that the first thing he mentioned was this "hope" that had been inspired in him. It wasn't healthcare, the war in Iraq, the economy - it was hope. And that's really fascinating.

I am struck by the fact that so many are placing their hope in a flawed human being. That is not an attack on Obama - I am saying in any flawed human being. We place some mythic value on people that is not deserved, in fact is misplaced, and is often even betrayed. It's irrational. We look to one human being as the message of hope, that by following this person people believe all ills will be remedied.

But Obama is not worthy. Nor are talented athletes, actors and actresses, rock stars, or pastors. There is only one source of hope. We hope in Jesus Christ. We trust our God above all else, above all people. For people are flawed, and people will fail to live up to the "hope" we have placed in them.

You might think I'm being a bit pessimistic. Maybe a tad, but if we simply look back over thousands of years, we have ample proof. People screw up - all the time. Yet we keep turning to people and placing our "hope" in them.

Instead, it's time to turn back to God's book. The lessons in Scripture are infinite and eternal. There is a message for all situations, and direction for our lives.

The Book of Job is an entire story of hope. The following passage comes from the 8th chapter:

Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web.
He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.
He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, 'I never saw you.'
Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.

How can you be unmoved by such beautiful poetry? It's a story of misplaced hope. It's sad, heartbreaking. And so many that place their hope in a politician will suffer the same fate.

Is it wrong to hope? Not if the hope is placed in proper perspective. It was certainly not wrong to have hope in the message delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. Or Nelson Mandela. Or Winston Churchill. But the hope we have in this world, in broken people, must always be compared to the eternal hope that never fails, never falters, never fades.

I know, I'm being overly dramatic to a degree. But true change does not come from a government official; it comes from within, it comes from one's heart, and is formed by God, in whom our true hope should reside.