Seven Days

Smart people have hope.

Living outside the US long ago, it was something to watch American News. The local TV station got the tapes in the mail and would show them a few days later.

So, the news anchor comes on. He is grim. His face is dark and scowling. The music is tense. The tone portends great evil. There is a crises in the Middle East. Protests are flaring. Commies are winning. Dow Jones is slipping. Markets are shaking. The President is failing. The world teeters on the brink.

Since that was seven days ago, it was good to know that we made it through somehow.

One of the most hopeful figures of that era was Ronald Reagan who said we would “transcend” Communism and called for the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. After he left office and was by some measure feeling the onset of dementia, the Wall came down and a few years later the Soviet empire desolved. A piece of that wall is on display at his library to remind us.

Wise King Solomon said this:

“At the death of an upright man his hope does not come to an end, but the hope of the evil-doer (with all his power and wealth-implied) comes to destruction.” Proverbs 11:7 (BBE)

Scripture often demands a lot of me. Sometimes it says I must look into the face of immense, dark, hopeless, grinning evil, wherever it is, with all of its plans to stick around, and believe it will not last. It will not win.

When I think I can handle a dark world by myself, I can lose hope when my smarts aren’t enough and the money goes. So I learn it is better to shoot for greater ideals and to hope in one greater than myself. That way when ability and money run out, my hope remains.

Evil says, “It’s no use son. Don’t even try.”

Yeah, well, I’m starting to see things seven days later.

Published 18Jan18