I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

–Ephesians 1.17-21 (NIV)

Hope is an essential attribute for living. Without it we would soon shrivel up and die. The question isn’t, “Should we hope?” but rather, “For what should we hope? What is the basis for real hope?” because like it or not, we all put our hope in something or someone.

Too often, however, we spend most of our time whistling through the graveyard in terms of what we tend to put our hope and trust in. We lose our job and we hope and pray for new work. We lose our mate and we hope and pray for new company. We lose our health and we hope and pray for its return or at least for a good prognosis. When the New Year rolls around we hope for a better one than the last. At least for people in the Western world, when we lose the things that matter most to us (or don’t have them in the first place), namely relationships and a sense of belonging, we tend to put our hope in things. We buy new toys or pursue riches, or power, or security, hoping desperately that in them we will find meaning and purpose.

But of course we know better. Yes, we need material things to sustain us (food, drink, shelter, etc., and the money needed to obtain them) but material things can never bring us real hope or satisfy our deepest desires to love and be loved by someone. Money, power, and security have never been able to raise anybody from the dead.

So why do we pursue so vigorously that which can never ultimately satisfy? There are lots of reasons but one reason that the Bible consistently identifies is our human pride. We don’t want anyone, God included, telling us what to do our how to live our lives. No, we want to play God, even though we can’t. But hey? Why spoil the fun with the truth?

But there is a better way to gain real hope and Paul points us to it in today’s passage. First, Paul reminds us that real hope, hope that will not disappoint in any circumstance, is not of our own making; rather, it is one of God’s gracious gifts to us. As he reminded us in a previous verse, we cannot possibly have real hope without it being given to us by God’s Holy Spirit living in us (cf. Ephesians 1.14; Romans 5.5)

Second, real hope, the kind that can and will sustain us through anything life can throw at us, has an objective basis for its existence. That basis is Jesus Christ. Real hope is given to us by God and has Jesus at its very center. It can and does sustain us because it is powered by God himself who raised Jesus from the dead and can bring things into existence out of nothing by his very word. Real hope is not something we wait for in the next world. If it is to have any value at all it must be available to us here and now because we live in a good but terribly broken world and we ourselves are profoundly broken.

Real hope reminds us that God is in charge, despite the times when it looks like he is not. How do we know this? Because the power of God raised Jesus from the dead and points us to the promise of New Creation. It reminds us that God has the power to redeem and heal.

Real hope helps us persevere through our many and myriad difficulties. It sustains us because it reminds us that not only do we have a God powerful enough to deliver us from our afflictions, we also have a God who loves us passionately and has moved decisively in human history to end our exile from him. In this life we will only experience that end to our exile in an imperfect way, but it is enough to remind us to keep our eyes on the prize because we know a better day is coming, an eternal day in which there will be nothing to test our hope. Real hope reminds us that life is about having a relationship with God, not mortal existence.

It is this kind of hope that sustained Paul. Listen to him talking about his work to the Corinthians.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many (2 Corinthians 1.8-11, NIV).

We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything (2 Corinthians 6.3-10, NIV)

Notice carefully that Paul does not wring his hands and wonder why bad things happen to him. Instead, he focuses on the power given him by God to sustain him in his work. There is a joy in his letters that defies logic–if we see the good life as having lots of things and being trouble-free. But if we see life as having a real and deep relationship with God, Paul’s description above of his work and the difficulties he faced makes perfect sense.

Hope is one of the keys to living a happy and meaningful life, but the key is to put your hope on the right thing. Scripture makes it clear that God is able to sustain us in any and every situation. He is worthy of our hope because he is God and he always delivers on his promises.

Do you have real hope or are you whistling through the graveyard? If you are a whistler, ask Jesus to come into your life and show you a better way. You have the testimony of countless Christians that you will not be disappointed if you do.