Part I - Hope and Sheep and Goats

*I split this post into two parts , so don't miss the second part or the title really won't make sense.*

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 15:13

One thing that the Gospel has done to me is that it has amped up my "hope meter" to an incredibly high charge. I no longer feel the need to view anything or anyone from a fatalistic perspective. My expectations are beginning to be set on the good, the perfect and the lovely because these are the things we've inherited as sons and daughters of the Most High. This is the city, the New Jerusalem, that we live in...right here, right now. A few months ago I recorded some of the things I am hoping, dreaming and believing so that my family and I can celebrate as we praise and honor our Father while watching these things become manifest before our very eyes! As I was looking back over my list (I came up with ten things), two of my hopes...my two most eager hopes in fact...brought a smile to my face as I considered how ridiculous they would've seemed to me at one time.

I always touted that "With God, ALL things are possible", but man, I just didn't really believe it. Or maybe I believed that all things are possible, but not probable. Or that all things are possible, but only if it's in His will, and since His "ways are not our ways" I really have little chance of knowing the desires of His will and, therefore, certain things that seem good to me could be bad to Him, which would make them impossible. This line of reasoning would be true if He didn't go to such great lengths to make Himself, His desires and the true meaning of "goodness" known in the person of Jesus. His will is crystal clear. We've made it very confusing by our suspicious nature that can't help but to question whether grace, mercy, compassion and forgiveness are really given freely by an all-powerful God. The answer that most of our theologies come up with, even if we don't want to admit it, is "no". Something is required in return. Just look at the way our economies, politics, and justice systems work. The principle of transaction is how we operate.

So when Jesus shows up saying, "Hey, my Father doesn't fit into your systems. He's free. And He doesn't use His freedom as an excuse to do evil. He uses His freedom to be Himself, which is love. Your money is no good here. Your religion is no good here. Your sacrifices are no good here. But He would be delighted if you would just believe that He really is that good and is committed to making you as free as Him." Such claims earned Jesus honorable titles like "liar" and "blasphemer." It's a really good thing that His patience is willing to wait on our resistance to crumble. Patience isn't something I've thought about a whole lot regarding God, but it's a huge part of the Good News. His patience is so coupled with His love, and then if you combine that with His faithfulness...our willful unbelief is just no match for that kind of heart.

Trust me, even as I write these things, there's a side of me that thinks it knows better. I'm tempted to agree with C.S. Lewis who came to the conclusion that eventually God lets us have our way and says "Fine. Thy will be done," thus condemning the most resistant (who are probably the most wounded) to remain disillusioned forever. But out of nowhere, a faith rises up in me when I see Jesus stripped naked on the cross, without an ounce of vengeance or resistance. And in His willingness to submit to our stubborn will...His will somehow wins. Even in a seeming defeat, He is triumphant. Because, while it was our will to reject Him, it was His will to reject our rejection. And apparently, His will is the one that resurrects and ascends to the right hand of total agreement with the Father, who then assures the Son that all will be subject to Him. And what is so beautiful about this is that this subjection occurs not by force nor by might or manipulation or coercion, but by the very Spirit of grace.

Oh my word, the implications of this...

Being certain of nothing (including my own beliefs and conclusions) but His love gives me a gigantic reason to hope, and to hope for things that would seem impossible were it not for the revelation of the cross. Not only that, but it empowers me to believe that I have a part to play in this most beautiful, intricate story of humanity's history. Because, you see, if His submission to our violent will still ended in victory for Him...what on earth will happen as my violent will submits to His loving one? As Paul wrote in Romans, "For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?" I feel like I can't even speak to the brilliance of this. If such a massive thing can be accomplished through our rejection, through our disobedience...what will our consent mean? As each of us gives in and says, "Yes Father, your way of love and mercy and grace and forgiveness and compassion is the image that I was created to bear. As I agree with you, as my mind is changed and renewed, as the Spirit teaches me your way, reveal this image of Christ in me!"

If I live with an assurance of the highest possible hope anchoring my soul to heavenly reality, will it not change the way that I see all people? Will that not then affect my treatment of them, my heart for them? If it pleases God to reveal Christ in me, then it pleases me to reveal Christ in every person.

All that being said, here are the two hopes that I was referring to earlier:

1. I'm expecting to see ALL men, women and children come to believe the Good News of their inclusion in the love of God and to see that they've been created in the image of that love and have now been fully reconciled to that image by being reconciled to their Father who took the initiative to make Himself and His eternal nature fully known in Jesus, and to experience the utter bliss of relationship with Him in this life and in whatever delight comes after!

2. As number one comes to fruition, I believe that the peace of Heaven will be made fully manifest among the nation's, here on earth (and I don't mean at some future point after a rapture of the righteous and a great tribulation of the wicked as this current planet dissolves in a great fireball). As this happens, sickness, poverty, discrimination and hatred in all of its forms will be abolished and the empire of love and joy will reign over our days and weeks and years.

These two things may sound a bit... naive. But, I just don't think I can set my hopes to a lower bar anymore. I have to be done with fatalism and solemn assemblies and sober expectations and crappy prophecies that require zero faith, zero hope, zero joy and zero love. I'm done with any belief that makes the cross of Christ look ineffective for certain things, especially when those things align with the merciful, healing, compassionate, restorative desires that seem to permeate His being. Are my hopes impossible for Him? I'm erring on the side of...nah.

Is it possible that I will experience and see things that are complete contradictions to my ten dreams? Sure...maybe...I dunno. I have no expectation for contradiction, but even if that's the case, I'm under no obligation to become less hopeful. He makes all things, even the worst possible contradictions, work together for our good anyway until, eventually, the contradiction must bow to the truth. We have inherited an unshakeable Kingdom. (See Hebrews 12:22-29). Let's try to realize and begin to dream about what this could mean! Even if we're wrong, let's welcome the opportunity to be wrong because our error will always lie in the fact that we UNDERexaggerated His love. His love is displayed best in the action of laying His life down for His friends, and these "friends" that He lay His life down for considered themselves His enemies. Either that's some pretty dillusional love or it envisions such great hope that it can declare an enemy a friend long before the friendship is enjoyed.