Hope

As Christians, what is it that we have for the world? Hope. Hope for the future. Hope for healing. Hope for lives. One statement made by Chris Collinsworth last night after all the Olympic Games and ceremonies had concluded immediately brought my thoughts back to the thoughts I had after the opening ceremony. “If there’s one word that comes out of the Olympics for me it’s hope. I mean, for two weeks people from all over the world gather and they get along in a way that is just chilling almost in many ways, and you say if it could happen for two weeks, why not three, why not a month, why not longer…”

Our individual healing begins when we make a personal decision for Christ and we are unified in our relationship with Him. As our relationship strengthens our reflection is of the hope we have found. When individual Christians live lives founded on the message, the Body of Christ reflects unity in a grander way. Unity can only happen through relationship. Relationships require an interest in the other person and a putting aside of personal agenda. Hope is evident in unity. Chris noted the hope of something greater than personal agendas of individuals and nations. The taste of it left a yearning for more.

When will we realize we know the author of that hope? Our eyes are so occupied with personal agenda we have difficulty in maintaining our personal relationship with Christ. Saturday afternoon’s broadcasting took a moment to spotlight Eric Liddell’s story. I love his testimony. He understood that his gift of running was from God. He glorified God through it, but He held his relationship with God closer. His testimony of this was seen as he upheld the Sabbath. He would not run on Sunday, despite being a favorite to win it. (There’s always debate about whether Saturday or Sunday is the actual Sabbath, but the technicality of the issue is not what is important.) As a Christian I realize that the greatness of His story is not that he held something more important than his running, but that because of His relationship with God he respected the source of his gift more than the gift. He realized the greater hope and lived for it.