{"id":2172,"date":"2015-01-09T17:43:25","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T00:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/?p=2172"},"modified":"2015-01-23T14:31:44","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T21:31:44","slug":"hope-living-good-news-in-the-midst-of-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/?p=2172","title":{"rendered":"Hope: Living Good News in the Midst of Bad News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hope<\/a>The economy of fear is big business in our world. Fear is what sells news, books, horror and apocalyptic movies about the end of the world, insurance, and is a key driver behind much of the health\/pharmaceutical industry. Whether it is the Ebola crisis, the stock market and oil\u00a0prices\u00a0plummeting, the war against terrorism both in the Middle East and on our shores, global warming and the extinction of species, we are being bombarded with bad news that preys on our worst fears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This unhealthy diet of bad news is fueling a pandemic of either\u00a0resigned fatalism on the one hand or\u00a0radical fanaticism\u00a0and unrealized triumphalism\u00a0on the other hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fatalism\u00a0born out of despair\u00a0is like\u00a0a fog\u00a0or darkness choking out the\"Fear<\/a> light.\u00a0It seeps into our brains, and\u00a0our emotions convincing us that it doesn’t matter what we do because\u00a0this world is going to hell in a hand basket.\u00a0So we\u00a0cover our\u00a0eyes, and\u00a0hope this is all\u00a0a bad dream that will go away. We are numbed into inaction.\u00a0We lose hope and give up. We start to see the world as grey rather as a world full of colour!<\/p>\n

Proverbs 13:12 describes it this way: “Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Sinking<\/a>Even some\u00a0of our\u00a0theology, reflected in the\u00a0recent end times movie,\u00a0Left Behind <\/em>starring Nicolas Cage, feeds into a doom and gloom worldview\u00a0in which this world is like a sinking, burning\u00a0ship.\u00a0\u00a0Our\u00a0only hope is to\u00a0put on\u00a0the life\u00a0jacket of personal salvation to give us hell insurance,\u00a0and to\u00a0be our ticket into heaven\u00a0in the afterlife. The best we can do is huddle in our life boat with a few other chosen folks – the church –\u00a0waiting for Jesus to come airlift us out of this mess.<\/p>\n

Now I\u00a0am not suggesting that we\u00a0live in\u00a0despair,\u00a0or buy\"Planet<\/a> into the debunked and dying\u00a0Enlightenment doctrine of truimphalism that promised\u00a0through science, technology, and the power of humanism\u00a0everything\u00a0would get better and better until we reached utopia. Our experiment\u00a0in hoping that the evolved human race\u00a0could reach the heights of\u00a0replacing God and fix all that\u00a0ails us\u00a0has not produced the end\u00a0result we had hoped for.\u00a0The movie\u00a0The Dawn of the <\/em>Planet of the Apes <\/em>is an interesting\u00a0commentary on the consequences of our hubris\u00a0as a\u00a0human race.<\/p>\n

With all of\u00a0our\u00a0intellect and innovations, we have not been able to eradicate the heinous\u00a0evils of\u00a0genocide and ethnic cleansing, or\u00a0stop\u00a0the exploitation of children and women. Our progress and rampant\u00a0greed has led to the\u00a0raping and destruction of the natural\u00a0resources\u00a0and environment\u00a0for profit. With all our advances we still have not been able to wipe out diseases such as cancer.\u00a0These stark realities are humbling.<\/p>\n

Fanaticism in religion has not fared any better. We can see\u00a0daily the\u00a0ugly fruit of\u00a0 its various\u00a0iterations such as: Dominion theology<\/em> – the belief that we are to\u00a0rule over all the earth by\u00a0taking over the power structures of every sector (politics, religion, education, business, entertainment, ect.)\u00a0of our society and\u00a0setting up a prototype\u00a0of God’s\u00a0physical kingdom on earth …kinda like what Constantine the Roman emperor\u00a0did in the 4th century when he made Christianity\u00a0the state religion,\u00a0or what\u00a0Calvin tried by being a spiritual dictator\u00a0and trying to set up a theocracy in\u00a0Geneva in the 16th century, or ISIS in Iraq and Syria today.<\/p>\n

\"Fear<\/a>Another\u00a0expression is the Manifest Destiny<\/em> theology. We see this especially in the the political and religious right wing\u00a0camps in North America. This is the belief that\u00a0we are God’s favourites with His backing to promote and spread our brand of politics and religion. The extremes of the above\u00a0are found in Fundamentalist theologies\u00a0that\u00a0use God to rationalize and justify the use of fear, force, and even\u00a0violence to enforce their worldview, doctrine, and morality.<\/p>\n

These doctrines have not worked, and have even back fired to create more Bad News!<\/p>\n

Much\u00a0of the\u00a0bad stuff happening out there\u00a0we can try to\u00a0hold at arms length. What happens when\u00a0it hits close to home? This last year we\u00a0as a family had to live through\u00a0the sudden\u00a0bad news that Esther, my wife and mother of our\u00a03 boys, had been diagnosed with\u00a0breast\u00a0cancer.\u00a0When I heard the news it was like someone had punched me in the stomach.\u00a0Why Esther? Esther is one of the nicest people I know. She eats healthy, has no history of breast cancer in her family, and doesn’t smoke or drink at all.\u00a0Haven’t we had our\u00a0fair share\u00a0of hard stuff happen to us?<\/p>\n

The question is not whether we will face bad news, but\u00a0how do we face the reality of bad\u00a0news in our lives, and not succumb to negativity, fear, despair, or a fatalistic resignation to simply circle the wagons and hope bad stuff doesn’t happen to us?<\/p>\n

\"Hope<\/a>The answer is found in the word Hope. <\/em>What is Hope? How does hope help us walk out being Good News when we experience bad news in our lives? How does hope motivate us to do our part to make this world a better place in the here and now?<\/p>\n

My two Heroes of Hope <\/em>are my wife Esther and Jesus who have been examples of how to live Good News in the midst of bad news. Below are the ways that they have showed me what walking out hope looks like.<\/p>\n

1. Hope is letting go of the notion that life is fair.<\/em> Bad things happen to good people and it simply\u00a0doesn’t make sense. The sooner we stop trying to figure out all the answers to the ‘Why’ questions the sooner we get on with living life. Esther has not\u00a0let bitterness\u00a0creep in to her heart by becoming angry and blaming God. She has not let herself get stuck in the\u00a0muck of self-pity by focusing on the ‘Why me?’ question. Instead she has accepted the fact that life is full of mystery, and that she wants something beautiful to come out of her journey. She has been honest with the fact that cancer sucks, but she will not let this awful disease rob her of living life with joy.<\/p>\n

2. Hope is a posture of<\/em>\u00a0alert expectancy for good to come out of the bad!\u00a0(from the Message Rom 5:5). <\/em>It is believing for the best and not giving into fear.\u00a0Hope is first and foremost a choice to be postive even when things look bleak.<\/p>\n

My wife Esther has been a living\u00a0example of\u00a0this unfailing\u00a0optimism\u00a0in how\u00a0she has walked through the last year of battling cancer. Instead of feeling sorry for herself she has lived every day to the full with an expectancy that she will be healed.\u00a0Her joy and peace through it all lifted the anxiety and fear that could have settled over\u00a0our boys.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Good News is that we believe God has healed her from the cancer through\u00a0both the\u00a0health care she received and through the prayers of so many! Today she feels great and the past year seem surreal.\u00a0Her perspective is that it could have been much worse. She sees her scars as a mark of grace…kinda like a tatoo she didn’t have to pay for! She has a story of hope to share with others of\u00a0how God can turn the bad around for good.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3. Hope is an attitude of being thankful for every good gift<\/em> even when you face the bad stuff. Right from the get go Esther has modeled being grateful for the fact\u00a0that the cancer was caught early (Stage 1), that she had one of the best surgeons in the city, that she didn’t have to have a mastectomy, that she came through radiation with little side effects, and that\u00a0she is deeply loved by so many. Esther doesn’t seek attention and shies away from the limelight, so it was cool to see her become the center of so much attention and pampering!<\/p>\n

4. Hope is an action!<\/em>\u00a0We live hope when we do something to\u00a0make\"Hope<\/a> this world a better place. Every act of service like shoveling\u00a0your neighbour’s side walk, every smile, every time we recycle, every time we forgive an offence, every moment spent creating something beautiful like a poem, painting, or\u00a0song,\u00a0we live hope in action. It is\u00a0doing our part to be an answer to the problems plaguing our world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let’s be advocates for justice by supporting a child from a needy community through World Vision or Compassion,\u00a0or\u00a0lobbying our government for tougher laws\u00a0against child exploitation! Let’s be peace keepers by mediating between two parties in conflict, or by becoming a friend of a person from another part of the world or religion than our own.<\/p>\n

Let’s encourage the Next Generation that they have a purpose for being on planet earth. Through\u00a0their talents and gifts they can make this world a better place by\u00a0discovering\u00a0cures to cancer or Ebola,\u00a0by finding and inventing renewable sources of energy, and by working to eradicate poverty through education, health, food and water, well paying jobs being available for all!<\/p>\n

5. Hope is found in the person of Jesus and His promise of a coming Kingdom.<\/em> The Grand Dream that I wait for, live for, and\u00a0work for is a day that is coming where every wrong will be made right, where the earth will be renewed in all its beauty and harmony, where there will be peace and reconciliation in every relationship and between every race and religion! A day where there will be no more poverty,\u00a0sickness, death or tears!\u00a0 Jesus promises to come and complete His restoration plan for this world. Let it be so and let us live so no matter what we face.<\/p>\n

\u00a0
\nBy,<\/p>\n

Tim Schultz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The economy of fear is big business in our world. Fear is what sells news, books, horror and apocalyptic movies about the end of the world, insurance, and is a key driver behind much of the health\/pharmaceutical industry. Whether it is the Ebola crisis, the stock market and oil\u00a0prices\u00a0plummeting, the war against terrorism both in […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[99,194,199,198,195,197,200,160,196],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fear","tag-good-news","tag-gratitide","tag-healing","tag-hope","tag-jesus","tag-life-to-the-full","tag-theology","tag-upside-down-kingdom","category-1-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197,"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions\/2197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questforlifecoaching.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}