The other day I made a list of things God brought to my mind as a result of seeing my dad recently. At the top of that list was: Don’t put hope in the temporal. Did I mention that this list is part of a lifelong sanctification process? I will be learning this over and over until I die. So what temporal things am I personally tempted to put my hope in?  Right off the top of my brain the approval of others comes to mind. Why do I hope to be approved of?  Well, I guess I want to feel good about myself. I’m desiring to get some sort of happiness out of the opinions of others. Oh boy, that sounds like a bad plan. Not only is it robbing God of glory that he deserves it is exhausting just thinking about it.  Do I approve of any one person 100% of the time?  How could I ever hope to keep every one I come in contact with thinking I’m wonderful all of the time? Hopeless

I hate to say it but yes, I am also tempted to put hope in stuff. Some things have happened to me in the past several months that have proved to me that this bit of idolatry is alive and kicking when I thought it wasn’t an issue. How absurd to put hope in things that will all eventually end up in a junk pile or in the very best case – a museum.  Hopeless

This list could be endless but I’ll just choose one more example. How about quality of life? I hope for a blissful, pain free existence.  Thanks to Christ I will experience that some day but to hope for it here on earth is going to disappoint.  It’s part of living in a world of sin. Now of course I don’t consciously hope for this. Everyone knows that life has hard and painful moments, but I sure don’t act like I know this when I react to suffering as if it were something I thought I could avoid.  There are many things God in his goodness gives us to enjoy but to think all of life should be fun…hopeless.

I’m attempting to make a very brief and small point here. Placing my hope in anything other than God’s mercy through Jesus Christ is a worthless pursuit.  There must be something better, there is something better, and I’ll write about that in the next blog post.

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