The Hope Factor Quiz (click to comment)

How is your hope meter these days?  Our elite panel of experts here at Laugh Again Laboratories have formulated a quiz to test your HQ, your hope quotient. When reality rattles your cage, will you conquer or cave? Let’s find out. Keep track of your answers. We’ll tally them up at the end.

1: When I get looking at discouraging newspaper headlines, then at my children or grandchildren, I admit that I:

a) Give way to despair, worry and binge eating.
b) Rant and rave about the sorry state of today’s youth, then go out for a smoke.
c) Remind myself that I was a mess when I was their age, but God was gracious enough to love and change me. If there’s hope for me, there’s hope for them.

2: When I hear about the tragedies in our world, I:

a) Ignore them. Why would I worry about others, I’ve got enough to worry about myself. There’s so much money to be made and spent on me.
b) Sit and stare at the news for hours. Gimme tragedy. Gimme disaster. It’s intriguing, thrilling, as long as it doesn’t affect me.
c) I am aware of the tragedies around me, I care deeply. But I refuse to dwell on things I can do nothing about, I will do what I can to fill the lives of others with hope.

3: My hope is found in:

a) The lottery. My retirement savings plan, better education, more government programs and the intrinsic goodness of mankind.
b) My children. They will achieve everything that I failed to accomplish and experience, and I shall ride the wave of their success and popularity. But it’s 5:30 am. Time to drive them to soccer, hockey, football, baseball, piano, guitar, viola, banjo, tuba, ballet, Yugoslavian class and lawn dart lessons.
c) There are times that things look hopeless. But deep down I know my hope is a living hope found in a risen Saviour, Jesus.

Now, it’s time to add up that score. For every A you selected, take three ice cubes and put them down your shirt. B’s are worth one polar plunge into a glacial lake. And every C will earn you a cup of hot chocolate in a comfy chair by a warm fire.

Where is your hope found today? I trust you’ve placed it in something solid. I’ve needed hope lately. I guess that’s why Romans 15:13 has become one of my favourite Bible verses. It’s my prayer for you today: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”