Hope That Kills

How can one of the most hopeful nations on earth also be one of the most disillusioned and cynical? Hope is a dangerous thing no matter how you look at it. False hope kills dreams, while investing hope in something solid kills disillusionment, cynicism, and fear.

The world loves blind leaps of faith. Go with your gut, just do it, make the leap, and follow your heart are cultural bylines. Infatuation takes the place of romance in most of our fiction. Infatuation are those feelings we have for someone we don't really know yet while romance is a slower, committed exploration of another person. It only grows based on an investment of time, honesty, shared experience, shared sacrifice, and loving service.

The entertainment industry thrives on easy hope. In most films people go from losers to heroes, loveless to fulfilled, and poor to rich in two hours based on infatuation and leaps of faith. But you only need to look at Hollywood headlines to realize that these false hopes don't even work for those who espouse them. False hope leaves people bitter, disillusioned, cynical, and—sadly—loveless, but the problem isn't hope. We need hope. Without it, what's the point? We all need something to live for.

I believe that the opposite of infatuation is romance. Infatuation are feelings based on ignorance while romance is an investment that leads to greater understanding and knowledge. Romance can apply to anything: a mate, a career, a hobby, family, and learning. It definitely applies to the Christian faith.

When faith is an infatuation it has more to do with feelings and little to do with knowledge. It is a faith that focuses on the experience and whims of the moment, and sadly, it doesn't deliver. Some eventually walk away in disillusionment. Others keep running after an emotional high while never gaining any depth. It all becomes Precious Moment statuettes and velvet Jesus paintings without the cross.

Faith should be a romance. True lovers invest everything to draw closer to each other. They take the time to get to know each other. Their emotional, financial, physical, and mental resources are focused to strengthen their romance. Without the investment, the hope of romance dies. The same is true of faith. It is participating in the divine romance. Faith begins in love, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

Jesus promises a great deal. He gives us something, someone, to hope in. But that hope requires an investment. To be sure, Jesus' offer of life is a gift,something that we can't buy. We must surrender and accept the gift of discipleship. But if we want a hope that doesn't disillusion, then we must throw off infatuation and enter into a romance with God. We read Scripture not merely as medicine, but as a love letter written to us and for us, going back to it again and again. We pray and worship because it brings us closer to our most faithful lover. We serve alongside God because we want to share life with him and invest in what he loves. We study because a lover wants to know his or her beloved more each day. All that leads to a solid hope that will not fail.

Infatuation faith will not move a dishrag, but the faith of a lover will move mountains. False hope kills, but true hope gives life and never disappoints.