Investing in Hope

One of my first favorite scriptures was Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future." I quoted this scripture often before I finally thought I should really read the book I so often quoted. I then found that Jeremiah was a pretty doom and gloom kind of guy! Where was the hope filled guy from 29:11? I didn't get very far into the book.

In seminary, we studied Jeremiah, particularly Jeremiah 32. In this passage Jeremiah buys a field. He tells the people that the land will be taken from them, and then he buys land. That tangible act was a symbol of hope. After preaching over and over that their sin would catch up with them, he didn't just say that hope still existed, he invested in that hope.

I have often found myself to be the youngest person at gatherings such as UMW, committee meeting, conference gatherings etc. (that is less the case now). As such, I am regularly asked if I see hope for the United Methodist Church.

As a young person in a more elderly church, I often hear people talk with despair about our world. There is almost a hope that Revelation may actually be coming to pass because people are so saddened and upset by the state of our world. People turn to me and want to know if I think that Revelation is coming.

Though I look at our Church and our churches and see many things that are dysfunctional, sinful, and irrelevant, though I look at our world and see many things that are dysfunctional, sinful, and shocking, I believe that God continues to have plans to prosper us and not to harm us. Plans to give us hope and a future. I believe that so strongly that I too chose a tangible symbol. I invest in the future with my son Micah. Micah, along with Isabella Graves, Wesley Hanover, Nora Masland-Sarani, Declan Stuntz, Claire Van Fleet, Miriam Irwin, and all the other precious babies born and to be born this year. This is our choice, our privileged, our promise. The future holds possibilities filled with hope for this world. God's Kingdom will come, and, God willing, John and Micah and I will get to help bring that kingdom here on earth.