As a Christian, I believe my hope lies in Jesus. As a Christian human being, I believe I have a responsibility to demonstrate that hope by serving and empowering others to serve, to be the change I want to see…
“Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
Even if you don’t like Star Wars, you’ve probably heard this popular quote. It’s shown up on memes and coffee cups alike. When characters in movies like the Star Wars franchise are feeling down and out, they look for someone to save them. It’s a common theme with a common conclusion: in the end, fallible human beings are not the hope of the universe. Even the Jedis fall for this kind of circular thinking.
And this version of hope is a common theme in real life too. When life is going poorly, when everything seems to have gone wrong for us, when we see the world around us crumbling, we turn to other human beings for hope. We see it every election season, or as people change the frame on their profile pictures to support a specific cause.
But it’s not that simple.
The Problem with People
In my adulthood, I truly saw this for the first time during the 2008 presidential election. As a 20-something who’d watched the Twin Towers fall four months before my wedding and friends and family serve overseas in two wars, I was tired of conflict. I was slowly watching houses in my neighborhood go empty and then into foreclosure. I was pregnant with our first child, and I worried about the future that the world would hold for our unborn daughter.
While I had nothing against either main presidential candidate, while I saw both men as respectable Americans who would do their best for their country, while I didn’t agree with everything either man stood for, I voted for hope.
And hope, at least in the form of a campaign slogan and promise, won.
Four years later, with a country still at war and a house that couldn’t sell after two years on the market, I chose to buck the system and vote with my conscience. I chose a third-party candidate over party politics. Because while I believe in my right to vote, I also believe that hope cannot be found in a single sinful person or group of people.
Because hope doesn’t come from people. Hope comes from God.
And true hope on Earth comes from people with their feet on the ground and their hands dirty in the work of helping each other.
The Power to Change
My frustrations as a Christian, a mother, a teacher, and an American citizen have grown over the last few years, as I have watched my fellow citizens participate in increasingly heated debates over the best directions for our country. And most of it’s not even happening in person, as we all hide behind our screens and yell into the void.
Often my friends and family on both sides argue in each other’s feeds that one person or another will be the answer to our social problems. Or conversely, that the election of one individual over another will result in the end of life as we know it. Ultimately, they maintain the misguided belief that if we put our hope in a human person or a man-made party, everything will be better.
But this is a lie that will destroy us. Instead, we have to put our hope into something bigger than a single fallible leader. Yes, God is all-powerful. He is ever-present in His creation. But through the model of Jesus’ love, He has showed us how we are called to serve each other and to change what is in our power to change.
Generations of Star Wars fans have seen this happen over and over again. The Jedi believe in the Force, but victory against the enemy doesn’t happen without multiple people working together towards a common goal.
Putting our hope in imperfect human beings won’t make things better. Human beings will only disappoint us.
In her book Of Mess and Moxie, Jen Hatmaker wrote, “Idolizing human beings just isn’t the way Jesus built his community to thrive. He decentralized, empowering ordinary people to be carriers of the good news.”
As a Christian, I believe my hope lies in Jesus. As a Christian human being, I believe I have a responsibility to demonstrate that hope by serving and empowering others to serve, to be the change I want to see, not to just sit idly by waiting for someone bigger and more important than me to do the work.
I will no longer act in a way that puts hope in an errant person or organization. My hope is in Jesus. My hope is in an infallible God. My response to that hope will be to empower and offer that hope to those who need it most.
What will you put your hope in?
