In his essay called \u201cPolitics and the English Language,\u201d George Orwell shared a crucial insight about the decline of language: \u201cA man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, as my friend Mike Bauman often says, \u201cSloppy language makes sloppy thought possible.\u201d In Orwell\u2019s \u201c1984,\u201d the masses are fed redefining slogans like \u201cWar Is Peace,\u201d \u201cFreedom Is Slavery,\u201d and \u201cIgnorance Is Strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
The battle over cultures is often in the defining and redefining of words. Language has often been used to lower horizons and keep people from really thinking. Today, as we discuss hope, we must confront bad definitions.<\/p>\n
We hear a lot about hope these days, from \u201cthe audacity of hope\u201d to \u201choping against hope.\u201d Unfortunately, the word has been redefined \u2014 and, I must say, shrunken \u2014 by bad definitions.<\/p>\n
Hope has been reduced to a kind of na\u00efve optimism that things will get better. We hope for a changed situation, a new job, a better love, hitting the lottery, or LeBron James winning his first championship.<\/p>\n
But real hope \u2014 biblical hope \u2014 isn\u2019t hope for; it\u2019s hope in: Hope in Christ \u2014 what He did for us on the Cross; and what He will do for us when He comes again and sets up His kingdom. A hope for is never better than wishful thinking. Hope in Christ is an expectation based on the certainty of who Jesus is and what He accomplished.<\/p>\n
When hope is defined down to a limp, pallid, and ultimately useless imitation of the real thing, people and cultures are unable to live above na\u00efve optimism or heartless despair.<\/p>\n
But real hope is neither optimistic or despairing, and one of Chuck Colson\u2019s closest colleagues, the late Richard John Neuhaus, described why: \u201cOptimism,\u201d Neuhaus said, \u201cis not a Christian virtue. Optimism is simply a matter of optics, of seeing what you want to see and opting not to see what you don\u2019t want to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hope is different than optimism. But we also can\u2019t despair. As Neuhaus added, \u201cWe have not the right to despair, for despair is a sin. And we have not the reason to despair, quite simply because Christ has risen.\u201d And that\u2019s where biblical hope squarely rests.<\/p>\n
This is no \u201cpie in the sky when you die\u201d kind of hope, but a hope that empowers us for effective service in this world right now.<\/p>\n
For Neuhaus, hope involved calling the church to embrace the truth and power of the Gospel even in a culture he called \u201cAmerican Babylon.\u201d For Chuck Colson, it meant proclaiming the sanctity of human life, marriage, and religious liberty.<\/p>\n
And for us, true, biblical hope \u2014 hope in Christ rather than a hope for an improved situation \u2014 empowers us to keep on keeping on in the myriad battles to which the Lord calls us.<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Copyright (c) 2012 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. “BreakPoint with Chuck Colson” is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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