Hope
Or why I stayed a Christian.
Being an honest Christian is difficult in this time.
It’s easy to be dissatisfied with the way the world is going. It’s easy to be disaffected by the way that the church has contributed to the increasing problems. From political radicalization to science denial to historical revisionism, there is a lot to be unhappy with.
So it’s hard for me, when faced with all this, to carry the title.
Why am I still a Christian then? What is it that has kept me in faith rather than abandoning it for something more tasteful?
Hope.
Hope that this is not all there is.
Hope that things do matter.
Hope that suffering has a resolution.
Hope that pain will be healed.
Hope that injustice will be made right.
Hope that in Jesus Christ all things will be fulfilled.
Hope that Jesus truly is God.
Hope that by following Him there is meaning.
Hope that living according to the faith is right.
Hope that Death has an end.
Hope that Christ will return.
Hope that there will be a future life of peace.
Hope that He will be all in all.
Hope that all things will be made new.
Hope.
Now I say this, brothers: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what is perishable is not going to inherit what is imperishable. Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. But once this perishable body has put on imperishability, and this mortal body has put on immortality, then what is written will be fulfilled:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
Death, where is your sting?
Grave, where is your victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:50–58
