Why Would You Want To Be Addicted To Hope?
Hope gives a picture for a better tomorrow, new ideas, an optimistic perspective of what could be. So, it may seem odd to pair the words addicted and hope in the same sentence, let alone combine them into a singular idea. Addiction has power over a person that almost seems unquenchable. The very word would generally invoke a sense of hopelessness rather than hope. But it is for this very fact; I choose to use it or, better, hijack it.
I mean to be provocative when I push the idea of being #AddictedToHope. Without any explanation, I hope combining these two words causes you to stop and reflect. The very contrast of these words, put together, invokes something disruptive and hopefully stirs something inside of you. Track with me for a second. Imagine clinging to an idea, like hope, with the same obsession as an addict would for their next fix. Imagine what would happen if the concept of hope had that sort of hold on you — consuming your every thought, desire, attention, and your actions and, ultimately, your future. Imagine if the drive that holds us to negative patterns were flipped, and we were driven by hope instead?
We find this powerful image in a conversation that Jesus had with a woman coming to a well (John 4:1–42). In this story, Jesus speaks these simple yet profound words: “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4:13–14 NLT). Jesus was contrasting natural thirst to spiritual thirst (or a divine thirst). Though drinking the water she was retrieving from the well would quench her thirst momentarily, Jesus was offering her something else entirely.
The water and thirst Jesus is alluding to here, and the message he was conveying is the message of the Gospel. The Good News. The mission He came to accomplish. This message would change the very life of this woman forever. And because of the impact in her life, it also changed the lives of all those in the village she came from! She became so caught up in it that she couldn’t help but tell everyone she knew. In essence, she became #AddictedToHope. The interaction she had with Jesus would change her reality forever and would forever anchor her to this hope and give her the ability to soar to a new freedom of living. I encourage you to go ahead and read this short story in its entirety and have this idea of hope in the back of your mind.
Let me lay all my cards on the table. #AddictedToHope is so much more than an idea, a hashtag, a campaign, a label, or a phrase because it has real power for real life. Hope transforms our lives and empowers people towards a movement that is changing the world. Without hope, we would never strive for something new, something different, something better. The world is full of great one-liners and ideas that bring inspiration, but inspiration without action is like a Lamborghini without an engine. On the outside, it looks impressive, powerful, and full of potential, but it cannot perform the way it advertises on the inside. #AddictedToHope is so much more than a hashtag because it isn’t merely an inspiring idea that causes you to dream for a better tomorrow but it also empowers you to realize that better tomorrow.
A.B. Simpson in his book A Larger Christian Life, beautifully exclaims this about this divine hope:
We need a larger hope. We need to realize more vividly, more personally, more definitely, what the coming of the Lord means, and means to us, until the future shall become aligned with the actual expectation and ever imminent prospect of His Kingdom and His reward. …How much inspiration is it fitted to lend to the heart that truly realizes it! May the Lord enlarge our hopes and intensify them until this becomes, next to the love of Jesus, the most inspiring, stimulating, quickening motive of our Christian life and work!
At the core of who we are, we yearn for something deeper. How often have you heard the phrase, “There has to be something more to life than this”? Hope sees how the message of the Gospel is a message of grace, faith, love, and real, tangible hope. Hope for the individual and hope for our communities. Hope for our circumstances and hope for the world. Hope for transformed lives and a better tomorrow. Its source is divine, it is unquenchable, and its implications are endless and eternal. It cannot be stolen, will not run dry, and will never be broken. This hope changes everything.
Want to explore this incredible idea of hope further? All it takes is a spark that ignites in you a movement towards true hope!
Get your copy of #AddictedToHope. Available on Amazon: http://getbook.at/addictedtohope
In #AddictedToHope, you will begin your journey to change by learning about a simple, yet transformational shift that I’ve seen work over and over again. Join me — and everyone else — who have discovered what it means to be #AddictedToHope.
