As I considered what to write about this week, one thought came to mind: the world is a heavy place right now. This became even more clear with the shocking and horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk, which overshadowed a devastating and traumatic school shooting in Colorado that occurred on the same day. That is not in any way a political statement but rather a picture of the pain our world is currently experiencing.

As terrible as both of these events were, they were very tangible pictures of something many people were already feeling: the world is a very broken place right now. From conflicts around the world to profound political division and more, our current reality can leave a person feeling hopeless and helpless. How can we fix this? Is that even a possibility?

In many ways, I believe some of what we are seeing in the world today are symptoms of that feeling of hopelessness. When a person begins to believe that there is no hope, it can push them to pretty desperate places. Obviously, that is not the entire story, but I do believe the overwhelming sense of hopelessness many people are feeling is playing a significant role in the current state of our world. Sadly, some people are using the fear many feel about our current trajectory to their own advantage. Instead of bringing people together, they are choosing to convince people that we are playing a zero-sum game in which there are only losers and winners. I have written about the dangers of this perspective in previous posts (Finding Unity Beyond the Election), and we are witnessing its results in real time.

As I explored in my book, Hope Realized, hopelessness is a powerful force. Sadly, I have seen it hold people and even communities hostage. I have even experienced levels of it myself. When it becomes deeply entrenched, it convinces people that nothing can ever change. People who once dreamed begin to believe that they were created for a life of less than, or at more of a macro-level, that society is too far gone. When people begin to live out of a perspective of hopelessness, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Hopelessness begins to perpetuate itself. However, there is good news.

Hopelessness is a lie.

I truly believe this to be the case. As human beings, we were not created to live meaningless lives. Instead, we were created by a God who loves us and created us on purpose and for a purpose. It is buy-in that gives a lie power. The more we buy into a lie, the more powerful it becomes. The more we buy into hopelessness, the more it will permeate and influence our world. If it’s hopeless, a zero-sum game makes sense: we better get ours before it’s too late. The good news is we do not have to buy into the lie.

Instead of buying into the lie of hopelessness, we can choose to lean into the truth of hope. “Isn’t hope just a wishy-washy feeling?” you might be thinking. Well, some hope is. You see, I believe we tend to put our hope in the wrong things. Whether it’s people, politics, plans, money, or a myriad of other “sources”, we place our hope in tangible but temporary things. The problem? They are temporary. While they may have the ability to carry our hope for short period of time, they will always fail. This leads up to move our hope to something else that will inevitably fail us as well. Ultimately, it leaves us jaded about hope and leads us back in the direction of hopelessness. I believe we find ourselves at this very moment and in this very cycle with politics today.

There is a different kind of hope. A hope that is foundational and not built on the temporal. It is a real and powerful hope. It is a hope that creates change and has changed my life. It is a hope that flows out of the truth that you were created on purpose and for a purpose by a God who loves you, and so was everyone around you. Not only that, but so was the world in which you live. Despite its brokenness, it was designed and created for good and abundance.

Imagine a world in which we saw others through that lens? A world in which a person’s God-given potential defined their value in each of our eyes. How much more hope would you have for others? What if we looked at the world around us as full of God-given potential? How much more likely would we be to do what we can to maximize its potential instead of fighting for “what’s ours”?

I believe there is hope for us and for the world in which we live. Hopelessness is a lie that, when exposed to the light of truth, loses it’s power. The question is what will we choose? Will we choose to buy into the lie that feeds the brokenness around us, or will choose buy into real hope that could help us write a new story?

I will continue to explore this next time, but in the meantime, we have a choice to make.

James Belt

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