Excerpted with permission from Hopeful-ish by Scarlet Hiltibidal. Copyright 2025, B&H Publishing.
Every single thing we pursue in this world is a thing that we can't keep. This is the case with every possible hope outside of the soul-shaping, life-vested love of the God of the universe. Every hope apart from Jesus is a hope with an end date. Earthly hopes have shelf lives. There comes a point where even if the hope is fulfilled, there is nothing left to hope for. The best marriages end. The best jobs end. The best hobbies end. So do the best uncles. There's only one hope that isn't a dying hope.
Jesus is a living, eternal friend. Jesus has a living, eternal love. Because he cannot die, everything that radiates from him toward us cannot die either, whether that's his love or mercy or friendship or hope. Said another way, you have a living hope in Jesus because Jesus himself is living—he overcame death in his resurrection, and he'll never die again. He's alive. Forever, unchangeably alive. Which means the hope he gives you is alive too, and cannot give out, run out of steam, or die on you.
Only the mercy of the living Jesus can heal us. Only the presence of the living God can satisfy us. And He can do that, regardless of our brokenness. We live in hope-adverse times; we are hopeful-ish at best, but Jesus isn't thrown off course by what happens on this earth. And He's never going anywhere. That makes His hope a present hope. It's a living hope. It is something supernatural that you have been given in Jesus, and because you have been given it, it is something you can do. Because you have hope, you can hope.
The Greek word for hope, in 1 Peter 1:3 is elpis, and elpis means "the expectation of good." Elpis is what I had in the 90s on Ventura Blvd. But it is so easy to lose hold of in this life. The Christian life, though, can mean the expectation of good. The hope we have in the gospel is a hope that expects good. Because when we're in Jesus, the Living Hope, the one who always guards, and gives mercy, and leads, and loves, even our seasons of pain come with them the expectation of future good.
"3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 4 and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 5 You are being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials 7 so that the proven character of your faith—more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire—may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
1 Peter 1:3-4 CSB
Peter is saying that Jesus is so good, so glorious, and so for us that in the face of suffering, our expectation for good can be so strong that we rejoice. Jesus gives us hope, and when we experience that hope, we can act on it in any circumstance.
I think the older we get, the harder it is to hold on to hope when the world breaks our hearts. The more disappointments we rack up, the harder and more protective our hearts get. Lord, help us stay soft. Yes, death exists. Yes, life isn't fair in the worst ways. But, I think that the miracle of walking with Jesus, walking with the Spirit of God, is His ability to re-soften us, to restore us, to reclaim what our enemy meant for evil.
"We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."
Romans 8:28 CSB
Sadness is natural. Sadness is to be expected. Sadness is inevitable. But experiencing hope in the midst of sadness is supernatural. Jesus can help us experience soul-level hope, even while our hearts are sad. We can have hope that souls are eternal, that life is restorable, and that broken things are fixable, through the power of God.
Jesus is able to fix broken hearts and fix them forever. The hope He gives to the hopeless is a gift. He has compassion on those who suffer and doubt and struggle. We can bring Him our losses and our questions and our pains—our deep sad—and He knows what to do with them. Because he's alive, he knows how to give us lasting and living hope right now, exactly when we need it. His hope is for today.