True Hope and Change

The new year of 2016 is an election year. Political pundits speculate on the viability of one campaign over another. Politicians promise to either carry on the standards set by a previous administration, or promise to be entirely different. Campaign slogans abound promising to stay the course, or offering “hope and change” of one type or another.

It is not strange to understand why politicians are not trusted in the general population. Unfortunately, in changing times where advancing secularism is now the domineering worldview, pastors now join politicians as being untrustworthy.

So many in the culture, without much justification, disregard the churches, pastors, and congregations of the community as having any practical value while looking instead to the government for moral and financial support. Nature hates a vacuum.

Without the churches and faith, communities with their pastoral leaders, the public fills the void with immoral vices and government programs which foster dependency. Too many look for spiritual and moral hope in secular leaders rather than finding hope in houses of worship.

Society often forgets that faith, hope, and love cannot be given or received from a government bureaucracy or a doctor’s prescription. This is not the case with faith communities in churches. Faith, hope, and love accompany accountability for individual behavior among churches. This is likely why contemporary society is hostile to organized religious faith.

True hope and change in the individual heart cannot be brought about with a change in political parties and campaigns. It begins with individuals examining themselves to see if they can change their own behavior towards constructive ends.

The New Testament calls this “repentance,” which is what humanity truly needs in order to live up to the admonition that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Pastors, churches, and the faithful people who attend may help those in our society that desire to find hope in desperate situations and comfort in times of trouble. Where you find faith, you also find hope, and real change that will uplift you in your circumstances and all of life’s challenges.