Monday, November 28, 2016

Ho, Ho, Hope

Hopium. It's the made-up drug millions of people all over the globe get high on this time of year. 

We've all been high on Hopium:

"I hope I get a pink pony from Santa!"
"I hope we have enough money for gifts this year."
"I hope it's a white Christmas."

But what about those who have run out of Hopium and are, well... hopeless?
Hopelessness is a lonely, drowning place. When all hope is lost then there is absolutely nothing left. It is what causes people to kill themselves and how people find loved ones on the floor in a fetal position.
What do the hopeless need? Many soup kitchens say that hope starts with a meal. Some say to let go and let God. Some say to let a person hit rock bottom and then make them ask for help because if they *really* want it, they will help themselves.

So let's do that, shall we? Let's watch people dwell in hopelessness until they feel worthless, put in their place and 'decide' to choose hope. Just like Jesus taught us to.

Oh. Wait. That doesn't seem right.

Our world was so incredibly hopeless that there was nothing left to do but to send in the ultimate reinforcement: Jesus.  And what He did was smeared hope and love all over the place. He tucked it into every nook and cranny and wrote it into the dirt with a stick. He scattered it on boats and food and rubbed it onto people's oozing grossness. Jesus dripped hope and love from His soul and stained fibers and even used it to the death of farm animals.

Because without it we are all gonna die.

What if we offered hope to the hopeless instead of watching and ignoring them/us? Let's dust the pride off of ourselves and serve up a heaping pile of steaming hot hope to not only the hopeless but especially to those who we don't think deserve it. Because who are you to make the decision on who should get it or not?

It doesn't have to be an over the top sweeping gesture. You don't even have to tell anybody about it. The person you shake hope onto will know and sometimes, just one is enough.

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