Better Than Ever Before

Deluded.

People who don’t believe in God and look at those who follow Jesus should really think that we are deluded.

They shouldn’t think that because of any judgemental or harsh views – that’s not disciples being delusional, that’s folks plain being demented at times. No, the reason why they should think we’re deluded is that we look around with a smile on our face really convinced that we’re working to a place where things will be better than ever before.

People will point out the wars, starvation, corruption, tsunamis, earthquakes, extinct species, climate issues, travesties of justice, gross acts of inhumanity to humanity and suggest that any degree of thought of working towards things being better than ever before is just plain nonsensical and ludicrous. People will suggest it would be far better to develop a more rational approach to existence and endeavour to muddle through the best we can. Any sense of ‘progress’ can be aspired to by each generation without really working in the thought that it will come about.

Yet the genuine hope of the follower of Jesus is that His invitation to the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is an invitation to a life much better than one on offer in the present. Not only that it’s a life in preparation for an existence to come that will far exceed anything that’s ever been experienced before.

What do we have to have such hopes – the reality of Jesus Christ. The reality of His life, His mission, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension and His promised return. We work towards what He has promised by living out those Kingdom realities now as we prepare to embrace the culmination of that on His return. It means as we grow in knowing Him that even as the mortal man perishes over time, there’s something far more energetic going on inside us that says that we’re not just looking forward to the brighter days ahead, we’re actively working towards it in our love for each other, our compassion for others and our devotion to Jesus.

That life is so unique that the cynical and sceptical would view it and seek to dismiss it as delusional.

It is not deluded. It is the Living Hope.

(Photo by Aziz Acharki on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden