Are We Just Fooling Ourselves That Things Will Get Better?

The poet Alexander Pope wrote "Hope springs eternal in the human breast" to describe the optimism of the human race. No matter how bad things get, according to Pope, people believe that sooner or later their quality of life will improve.

Those who are optimistic will point to emotionally encouraging stories of people who struggled through incredibly difficult situations and overcame their problems with the result of a dramatic change in their fortunes. The more pessimistic will simply point to a cemetery and say, "That's where we will all end up so how can you talk about hope?"

Is hope just a self-delusion or does there exist a type of hope that is so certain and solid that we can build our lives on it? The Bible certainly describes hope in a way that leads one to believe we can put our trust in it. This Sunday we begin celebrating the season of Advent, which is a four week period of preparation before Christmas. One of the important themes of Advent is hope. This Sunday we're going to study what the Bible said about hope during the Old Testament and how it describes hope now that Jesus Christ has come.

There is a saying that people can survive a few weeks without food, a few days without water, but we can't live a moment without hope. Hope is the difference between giving up and going on. Hope is what distinguishes winners and losers, success and failure. But more importantly, the hope which is described in the Bible is the basis for life not only today, but for eternity.

Are you starting to lose hope? Join us this Sunday (November 27) at 10:00 am. Let the Hope of Christmas start to change your life!