A Tale of Two Hopes

Jon Ladd

Picture this: It’s January 2015. Within the calendar year we will find water on Mars and Star Wars Episode VII will release in theaters, but all that matters now is the Seahawks are in the NFC Championship game against the Green Bay Packers. Seattle had earned their first ever Super Bowl rings less than a year ago, but you couldn’t tell by looking at them. There are four minutes left on the clock and the Packers are up 19-7. The dream is dead. Your cousin brought Seahawks cupcakes to the watch party, and you can’t even eat a third one you’re so disappointed.

But then - through a series of incredible plays, the finest onside kick to ever hit the turf, a winning coin toss into overtime, and an effortless-seeming drive to a touch down - the Hawks are conference champions only minutes later. The room’s so loud you feel like you’re at CenturyLink, and you’re already on to cupcake number four. But the season isn't over.

If you want to make a Washingtonian even more depressed than usual, ask them what happened at the game after that. We don’t talk about Super Bowl 49, and that’s because the hope of this world doesn’t always pan out.

Russel Wilson was my hero when I was in high school. He’s short for a quarterback, he was young, a general underdog, and at that point had one of the highest QB ratings in the league. But no one person can bear the weight of another’s hope for long. Most often through their own actions, sometimes through no fault of their own, everybody drops the ball (or throws it to the wrong team) eventually. So why not despair?

Because there is another kind of hope: one that “is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary” (Hebrews 6:19). This hope, which can also be translated as “expectation,” is literally our lifeline to the Almighty during our tumultuous days on earth. What’s different about this hope than the kind you have in a sports team? The One you’re hoping in, and His promises.

One verse earlier, Hebrews 6:18 states: “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.”

You can have confident hope in God and His promises, namely that Christ has gone to prepare a place for us with Himself and the Father. And in the words of Jesus, “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going” (John 14:3-4).

God has sworn this to you on oath, and who can be trusted more than Him? So hold on to your hope with expectant confidence. By His very nature, the Lord will never forsake you. We can trust Him with our hope through time eternal - long after we’ve gone the way of the Legion of Boom.