I have been shocked and disturbed lately at the rapid increase in news reports of tragedy after tragedy occurring in many nations and affecting all people around the world.  We have seen these events in Europe, USA and the Middle East that have sent people into sheer panic and fear.  Retaliation and revenge breaking out all over the world and even the whispers of wars.

If that’s not enough to scare us then’s there’s the increased threat of sickness, poverty, natural disasters, perversion and freak accidents that can all come to steal our peace, forcing us to adapt our lifestyle to avoid these threats.

Yet there is one thing more deadly than all of these things put together.  It threatens every home,  every life, every family and not one person can avoid a confrontation.

This epidemic has been around for centuries but became even more evident to me on a recent trip to Woolworth’s.  I had taken a moment upon exiting the store to pause and catch my breath.  My clunky wayward trolley had become difficult to manage.  As I paused there for a moment I noticed a man sat alone on a bench.  His head was down and his body language was frantic as he took a coin from his pocket and began scratching his way through a large pile of lottery cards.

His shoulders dropped time and time again as he quickly discarded each losing ticket while picking up the next, anxious to discover his fate. The speed and intensity to which he was scratching disturbed me, it was like watching someone addicted to heroin stick a needle in their arm.

My heart broke as I stood there silently witnessing the desperation and shattered hope as one after another failed. Finally he stood to his feet, breathed a loud sigh and headed to the bin.  Another days hopes thrown in the trash.

He had fallen victim to the epidemic of

Hopelessness.

Sadly this scenario represents the lives of so many people.  They feel hopeless from living with constant disappointment day after day after day having put their hope in one weak and futile word ….’Luck’.

Will today be my lucky day?  Will my luck ever change? and each day luck responds with a disappointing  “NO”.  We become infected with hopelessness because desperate for change we too readily give our hope away to something that only ends in the trash.

This epidemic destroys so many lives, families, cultures and nations.  It causes disease, depression and suicide, it weakens our moral and ethical beliefs.  It makes us retreat and accept without standing up for our convictions.  We simply learn to adapt to the unacceptable as a matter of survival.

Putting our hope in the wrong places eventually leads to a life full of disappointment and broken dreams.  A life that is not fulfilled and longing for an escape.

Hopelessness is at the core of the worlds problems and has the highest body count.

There is no life without hope, it is invaluable to the well-being of the human soul.  It changes our perspective and attitude,  it enables us to endure, persevere and overcome. Hope gives us foresight and a future as faith is the substance of things hoped for.

So why do we so easily dispose of it or give it over to chance?

Perhaps it’s our desire for more and never being satisfied with the now.  Comparing what we have with others,  thinking happiness comes in the package of a more expensive car, a nicer home,  a more thoughtful spouse, a higher income or a slimmer body.  Perhaps it’s a fear of the future and focusing on all that is wrong in our world constantly worried that devastation will one day soon knock the door.

A better tomorrow does not happen by hoping tomorrow is better but by enjoying the hope we have today.

We must cultivate our hope by taking time to stop and appreciate the blessings in our hands today; acknowledge them as our hopes of yesterday; and not trade them in loosely for a false hope of tomorrow.

Don’t trade your hope in for luck, it is too uncertain, it has no author, has ridiculous odds and is simply by chance.   Instead believe in favor, purpose and destiny for favor is given, purpose is outworked and destiny is planned and they are all authored by God our creator and the maker of the heavens and the earth.

So where is a safe place to put our hope?

I think of those poor families stuck in Grenfell Tower in London waiting, hoping and praying for a rescue but all the while watching the fire get closer and closer to eventually accepting their final moments were upon them.  What hope could a scratch card give them in that moment? what hope could a spouse or a loved one give them?  what hope does a nice car or a full bank account offer them in that moment?  None,  the only hope they could have was for an eternal life in heaven beyond this world and there is only one person that can ever offer us that.  Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah 17: 7 ‘Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

We are blessed when our hope is in the Lord.  He is the only one that can assure us of eternal life,  a better life, a life beyond the uncertainties and injustices of this world.

So if you’re looking for some hope to just get through tomorrow, or left disappointed from wanting more from this life or tired of living in fear of the future.  Then make a change today.  Choose to invest your hope wisely.

Are you  desperate to stop the epidemic from infecting you, your family, your friends? Then let me introduce you to the hope that can be found today.

Look at my servant (Jesus), whom I have chosen.  He is my beloved, who pleases me.  I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.  He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public.  He will not crush the weakest read or put out a flickering candle.  Finally he will cause justice to be victorious.  And his name will be the HOPE of all the world’

Matthew 12: 18-21

It’s time to stop wasting your life resting your hopes on things that are as fragile as life for they all wither and die.  Put your trust in the Lord for He is the only Hope for this life and the next.