It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when we look around at the world today. conflicts in culture and even the church can often feel like battlegrounds: loud, divisive, exhausting. Fear seems to be the default tone. Anger spreads faster than understanding. Discouragement feels like the safest emotion to settle into.
But as followers of Jesus, we are not called to mirror the tone of the world. We are called to bear witness to something deeper, something eternal. Not optimism or wishful thinking, but hope. Real, rooted hope in the One who is making all things new.
The early Christians in Rome had every reason to be afraid. They were a small, misunderstood community living in the shadow of a massive empire. Rome demanded loyalty, celebrated power, and tolerated no rival kings. The culture around them glorified status, conquest, power, and control, everything the gospel of Jesus seemed to turn upside down. To proclaim Jesus as Lord in that environment wasn’t just countercultural, it was dangerous. It meant aligning with a kingdom not built by violence, but by mercy. Not rooted in fear, but in love.
And yet, to that community, Paul wrote these words:
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 (NRSVUE)
This hope isn’t manufactured, it’s a gift of the Spirit. And it’s not meant to be hidden. It’s meant to shape how we talk, how we listen, how we love, and how we show up in every space, including the complicated and wearying world we live in.
Reflection Question:
Where can we be people of hope in a world of fear, anger, and discouragement?