BLOG 4/10/2016. THE NIGHTMARE OF HAVING NO HOPE

BLOG 4/10/16. THE NIGHTMARE OF HAVING NO HOPE

Interviewer Charlie Rose asked Secretary of State John Kerry what he thought the greatest threat to the United States might be, was it ISIL? Kerry’s surprising response (to me) was that it was not ISIL but was the reality that over half of the world’s population was under 25 years of age, and in much of the world they were living in hopeless situations and yet had access to social media so that they knew what others in the world did have, … so that they were quite willing to do radical things to escape their hopelessness, such as join radical extremist organizations.

At the same time we need to be quite honest that hopelessness among the under 25 generation is a very present reality in an advanced country such as ours also. We see it in technology and politics and in general. We have a generation of those young adults who are incredibly gifted, are making breakthroughs in information technology and other mind-boggling fields, and yet in large numbers are clinically depressed according to recent studies. They are motivated by challenges, they have access to more information than any generation before them, they can engage in long hours of work in sophisticated workplaces, … then they have enough income to engage in every hedonistic compulsion imaginable—physical fitness, gourmet dining, compulsive sexual entertainment, lovely homes and vacations, etc. … but when they put their iPhones away, and it is quiet and dark … that haunting reality of hopelessness creeps in, that absence of anything that produces in them true human flourishing, true meaning and hope. What is the real purpose of it all? What is the telos, the compelling purpose of my existence?

This is not at all a new issue. Walker Percy’s novel, Lost In the Cosmo is a brilliant foray into this existential issue for so many. Why do suicide rates seem to often escalate among so many gifted young adults? It is so easy for the information age Millennials to stay lost in their iPods, and so to escape the issue of meaning and hope—but it’s always there. The New Testament writer, Paul, gives one of the most poignant portrayals of this in the brief description of those who are “without God, and without hope in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). Or as one of my mentors described it: “Being adrift on the boundless, bottomless sea of chance.” Life with no guiding purpose, and no capacity to conceive of what might give hope … is a true nightmare.

Face it: life has never been lived in ideal circumstances, more frequently it is in the midst of the tragic. There are many false and deceptive gods, promises, gospels, tantalizing myths, along with all of the humanly impossible injustices and destructive realities, and huge challenges out there. But is there hope? Is there  that which produces  true human flourishing?

From its very beginning the Christian faith has been a message of hope. It has always said that in the midst of very worst of human emptiness and lost-ness and depravity, that Jesus has come as the Light in our human darkness, and has spelled out God’s purpose in his inaugurating a whole New Creation. It has always been a message of hope. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing by the power of the Holy Spirit so that you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13). Because “by the power of the Holy Spirit” (ah! supernaturally?) people in the darkest and most tragic circumstances have been able to live purposefully and fruitfully and redemptively—engaged in unselfish  lives of love and humanitarian ministries whether in the slums of Calcutta, or the glamour of Silicon Valley, the message of Jesus gives us a compelling and formative telos, a perspective and motivation. It has also, therefore, made true colonies/churches to be colonies of hope, good neighbors, agents of meaning and love. Where such hope exists in God’s people of hope it is contagious, it is the truly good news that those lost in the cosmos are seeking. It is what we all long to realize in our daily existence. Hope. What a beautiful word.

If you tune it to this reality, then pass it along. That is certainly my design in writing these Blogs.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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