optimum

Ephesians 2:12-22; Ps 85  The Lord speaks of Peace to his people; Luke 12:35-38

"You were at the time without Christ, alienated from the community of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have become near by the Blood of Christ."

Optimum and optimism are two realities that people often want to implement in their attitude.
They want to think the best of the situation or circumstance.  They want to believe that all will work out in the end, that everything is as it should be, that every moment is the optimum moment.

These are "half full" verse "half empty"  persons.

Optimism is a good quality but it is not hope.

Optimism finds its center in man and man's way of thinking and acting.  The problem with this is that optimism ends in the grave.  Ultimately the one who is optimistic  thinks that dust is the optimum condition of man because this is where it all leads.

Whether you are a half full or half empty persons one day the glass will be dry.

Optimistic people are usually passive as well.  They are not necessarily people of action.  They expect the good to show up but they do not always want to get their hands dirty in the process.

Yet, hope is a different reality.  Hope is not rooted in man.  Hopefulness is not centered in man's attitude.

Hopefulness is a quality of God.  It is God's gift to humanity.
Hope gives us access not to the best case scenario but to the real outcome of life.

In hope we have access to God, the ground of all reality.   This is why the one who has hope lives differently; the one who has hope has been given the gift of new life.

It is the hope we have in Christ that enables us to wait, to gird our loins and light our lamps and be like servants.  Hope is not passive but active.  We who have hope get busy preparing the way.  We put on our servant uniforms and we trim the wicks and roll up our sleeves.

We know that in service to others we shall be served in the end..."he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them."

Hopefulness is a gift we have received and that which motivates us forward.  We know life as we know it is not in our hands but in the hands of God and this makes all the difference.