What do you hope in?  I’m not talking about the kind of hope that you have for sunny weather tomorrow. This is big picture hope–confident expectation.  Life is not easy.  People have real problems.  Like Jeanine and I were talking about a few weeks ago, everybody has a story to tell.  And so many people are hopeless.

What do you hope in to solve life’s problems?  Money? A good body? A family? Admiration from others? Good health? A good president?

None of these things are bad, of course.  But they all come to an end at some point, right?  My dad always says there are two certain things in life: taxes and death.  

This is so important to consider–is the thing you are hoping for worth living your entire life for?  Is it going to matter after you die?

Sometimes the very thing you live your life for is taken away during your lifetime.  Like my cousin Ronnie. Almost fourteen years ago, he had everything in this world going for him.  As a senior in high school, he was on the brink of a successful college football career.  As far as success in life goes, the sky was the limit for him.  Then he was bitten by a mosquito while on spring break in Florida. Everything changed dramatically in that moment.  The mosquito was carrying the deadly encephalitis disease. Ronnie was in a coma for some time, but amazingly survived.  But the hope of a successful college football career (and beyond) was stripped away, never to be returned.  You see today, nearly 14 years later, Ronnie struggles to walk and talk.  His brain has not fully recovered.

Ronnie had to re-examine his life.  What was he supposed to hope in now?

God used Ronnie’s seemingly hopeless circumstances to point out some truths from the Bible.  One being, our life on earth is temporary.  When a person dies, their soul goes to one of two places for eternity: heaven or hell.  They are real places.

Most people will tell you that if the good things you did in life outweigh the bad things, you go to heaven when you die.  That is not what the Bible teaches.  In fact, even if a person did just one bad thing in their entire life, they are considered unworthy to go to heaven (where a holy, righteous God lives).  God demands perfection.  So now you’re thinking that no one can make it to heaven when they die because every single person is guilty of at least one bad thought, word or action.  You’re right on one part–every single person is guilty of at least one bad deed.

So is the notion of eternity in heaven hopeless?

Not hardly.  The Bible also talks about how much God loves us.  He created this earth and He created people.  Because of His love for people, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth as a man. While here, Jesus was fully God and fully man.  He never thought, said, or did anything wrong. But He endured horrible suffering and death.  For us.  It says that all the sin (cheating, hate, murder, adultery, gossip, abortion, stealing, lying…) of all creation (past, present, future) was laid on Him as He hung on the cross.  He took the punishment of death for us.  

Did we have to do anything to earn it?  No!  It was a show of true unconditional love–He knows the wrong things we do, and He loves us anyway!  Three days after dying, Jesus rose from the dead and after that went back to heaven, which is where He is now.  

So how can a person enter heaven when they die?  Believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the only way to eternity with God.  Trust that His death on the cross is sufficient.  There is nothing we can do to earn heaven.

This is what Ronnie has decided to hope in.  And despite his daily struggle, he is joyful because he knows that his life on earth is only temporary–he is confident that when he dies, he will be with Jesus in heaven.