Where Is Your Hope?

How is your hope meter these days? Your hopemometer. Our elite panel of experts here at Laugh Again laboratories has 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 think of the next generation, 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 think about my health, I focus on:

     a) The mirror. Where I imagine all sorts of things that may be causing my latest itch. Then, I will give an organ recital to anyone who will listen.

     b) The next diet. The newest pill. The latest therapy from bright-eyed TV gurus peddling expensive items I must have to be healthy, happy, and at one with the universe.

     c) The Book by my bed and the God who wrote it. I love this verse from Psalm 103 (ESV): “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!”

3: When times get tough, I:

     a) Fill my camper with canned goods and ammunition and hole up in a bomb shelter in the middle of the Mojave dessert.

     b) Medicate. I take whatever works. Caffeine, morphine, marmalade. Just hook me up to the IV.

     c) Pray. I’m thankful that in dark times my light can shine brighter. There have never been more opportunities to make a difference in this world.

4: My hope is found in:

     a) My retirement savings plan. Should that fail, there’s always the lottery.

     b) My children. They will achieve everything I failed to accomplish. I shall ride the wave of their success. And now it’s 5:30 am. Time to drive them to soccer, hockey, football, baseball, piano, guitar, banjo, tuba, ballet and lawn dart lessons.

     c) Christ alone. Amid rapid change and decay, things can look hopeless. So I’m learning to focus more and more on the unfailing love of an unchanging God. He promises to one day make all things new.

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 (NIV) 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.”