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have to give meaning and purpose to
his existence? Unfortunately, npne!
The Human Cycle
The sad circumstances óf the life of
Columbus
after
the fulfillment of his
life's hope aresomeofthe most painful
on record. The ignominy, final impris–
onment and utter despair (not to
mention abject poverty) in which one
of the greatest explorers known to
mankind finally died exemplifies per–
fectly the point that unless your hope is
big enough to survive success it is in–
deed hopeless. Columbus failed miser–
ably in governing what he had discov–
ered. Others took away from him the
potentia! and riches he had discovered.
He ended his life in poverty, having
suffered the indignity of chains and
imprisonment in the face of the suc–
cessful fulfillment of one of the
greatest hopes ever maintained by
man. He died in despair, a hopeless
man.
The human cycle had been ful–
filled: despair, hope, success, apathy,
cynicism, despair- an empty circle,
because his hope was
not big
enough!
What about you?
Hope That ls Transcendent
When we first break ties of economic
dependence on our parents and begin
an independent life, we hope for
things, or the money to get things. l f
and when those things cometo us, we
begin to realize "things" are not
enough to hope for. Even to keep the
things we now have that we hoped
for, we need security-and security
is
not
a thing. Security depends on
the economy, on government, on
peace, on health, on future stability.
All these are hopes that drive us on–
we never seem to achieve any one of
them for long (and 1 do not know of
any individual who has achieved all
these hopes at any one time) .
But are any of these hopes big
enough? What if you lived in a
peaceful, secure, economically
healthy and stable state-what
would you hope for then? What hope
would keep you from boredom; what
hope would you seek to achieve
which would give meaning to your
life, purpose and reason to live, a goal
to st ríve for?
That's where God enters the pie-
38
ture. God holds out a hope that is
transcendent , that goes above and
beyond the goals and purposes of thís
life, that offers a challenge that keeps
you going all life long; a hope that is
never fulfilled in thís life, a hope
beyond the grave, a reason to live.
God' s Hope
Do you realíze that God Himself lives
by
hope!?
Did you know that God has
set befare Himself a hopeso great that
not even He will be able to realize it,
ever? That His goal and reason for
living, that for which He st rives. for
which He is and was willing to die for,
is so vast and eternally occupying that
He will never achieve it?
The God who put tijis world to–
gether did so with a plan in mind.
That plan was not the hopeless Nir–
vana of one major rel igion of the
world which promises you will be–
come an unconscious part of the
great whole of nothing with no wor–
ries forever- because you have no in–
dividual consciousness forever. It is
not the bliss of slumbering in a ham–
mock slung between two date palms
in an oasis, being fed by voluptuous
maidens forever , the promise of
which the followers of Allah are as–
sured.
lt
is not walking the golden
streets with golden slippers, strum–
ming on a harp with your only worry
being how to keep your halo straight,
as seems to be the promise of the ma–
jority of Protestant groups.
lt
is most
certainly not the promise of finally
being able to look into the face of
God and appreciate the beatific vi–
sion (whatever that is), as is the
promise to those who follow the
Catholic faith. What the God who
creatcd everythi ng propases is to
bring you into His very family. To be
God as God is God! Not just to be a
God in the euphemistic sense of us all
being brothers and sisters with God
as our figurehead Father, but to
share His divine nature completely.
Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, is
alive and well, not in hiding, but at
the right hand of the Father in heav–
en. He fully plans to fulfill the prom–
ise He made to us in the name of the
Father: to bring many sons to glory,
to establish His Kingdom here on
this earth. God's promise is to make
you a son as Christ is now His Son.
To grant you membership in the lit–
eral famil y of God. To give you eter–
nallife as He is eterna!. To make you
holy as He is holy. As Possessor of
the universe, to share with you all
power and joint ownership. To share
with you the divine nature. To give
you the character of God, full of !ove,
peace,
joy- so you may be God as
God is God!
This is the purpose of
creation- the hope of the wor ld!
Eterna! Reason to Live
God's real plan is practica!. He says
of His family Kingdom that there
will never be an end to its expansion.
His plan is to continue adding sons
and daughters who look, feel , act like
Him and who are composed of the
same self-regenerating eterna! spirit
life as He is, forever! That is why the
goal God has set before Himself is a
hope that not even He will ever ful–
fill. Endless, eterna! , forever creating
an ever-expanding family to enjoy
and rule the great creation He has
already made-and to have you and
me share in future creations without
end. A busy, practica!, interesting,
challenging, ongoing plan that gives
an eterna! reason to live.
There is no boredom in that plan .
Never
a
time when your interest will
run out. No mythical, religious–
sounding folderol about sorne spiri–
tual never-never land where you do
nothing forever- but an eterna! job
of creating, governing
1
problem-solv–
ing with visible benefit.
T ha t 's a hope worth living
for ... and worth dying for, if neces–
sary, in this life. Because God our Fa–
ther has our life in His hands at all
times. No man can take that away
from you- because He has the power
to resurrect you from whatever death
any man can inflict upon you. He
created you in the first place for a rea–
son beyond the imagination of
any
re–
ligion on the face of the earth- a rea–
son sorne in the religious field would
call blasphemy (to think that the pur–
pose for our creation could be to make
usequal with God ineveryway).
No matter what your many tempo–
rary and interim goals and hopes may
be-and may they all be fulfill ed- be
sure to cherish this greatest possible
hope God offers us to give transcen–
dent purpose toour lives.
Make this hope
your
hope!
O
The
PLAIN TRUTH February 1979