When we began to work on the website HopeForLife.org, we sat down and talked about what we believe about hope. We decided that we could best communicate our thoughts about hope with the idea of four stages of hope, four steps along the road of having a life with meaning in purpose.

I believe that the first thing we must accept is that hope exists. There is hope. Before we can decide what to believe in, we need to understand that there is something to believe in. Some people look at the world and dismiss hope, choosing to focus on chance and coincidence, chaos and disorder. I've seen enough to know that they are wrong. There is hope. It exists. It can be found. It can be embraced.

I believe that hope is in God. Many of those who have given up on finding hope have done so because they spent their time looking to the wrong things. People place their hope in other people, only to be let down. They place their faith in wealth and possessions, only to have that faith shaken by economic turmoil. Others look to science, but find that the hope science offers is short-term, not reaching beyond the limits of this world. Only God can offer hope for this life by offering a promise of another life to come.

I believe that God offers hope through his son Jesus. There aren't multiple paths to God; there is only Jesus who proclaimed himself to be "the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6). Jesus offers us the way to overcome the things in our life that separate us from God. He doesn't just ask us to live right; he makes it possible for us to do just that. He brings us the hope of mercy and forgiveness, rather than judgment.

I believe that each of us can share in that life of hope. We can come to God in obedient faith, placing our hope in him and becoming part of a large community of people who have chosen his way of life.

God's hope is hope indeed
All of this is explained in more detail on our website, HopeForLife.org. On this site you can watch videos of people who are living a life of hope, read about what God wants from us and how to live life the way he wants, and learn more about how hope for the future affects our life now. If you have any questions, please write to me at tim@hopeforlife.org or leave a comment on our blog on www.hopeforlife.org. There is hope, and you can have it in your life.


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