Future Hope

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11

While Memorial Day is officially about honoring the heroes of the past, it might also serve the purpose of keeping sacrifice and service alive and in perspective for future generations. In a post-Covid world, the future may appear a bit daunting. And for some, that discouragement has quietly turned into disappointment with God.

Job is an example of someone whose life took a hard turn. While your disappointments may not be as tragic as his, you can certainly understand his very human response in giving voice to his distress, “God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me” (Job 19:6). However, he did not stay in a mindset of disillusionment. Shortly after making the previous statement he adjusted his focus, stating, “for I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the Earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25-26).

While Job did not have the full picture of Christ in his human identity, he exercised faith by deciding to place his hope in God’s plan. The same is true for many of the heroes being celebrated today. They did not see the results of their sacrifice, but they trusted their service was not in vain, but a part of the purpose for a better tomorrow.

Christ set the tone for everyone enduring unforeseen hardship, “for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Pray as America honors heroes of the past today that citizens also embrace a future hope in Christ.