A better future is not as far away as it seems…
The last time I was at the beach I stood at the edge of the water looking at the horizon…as one does. Rather than simply starting- a question occurred to me for the first time in my life and, frankly, I was embarrassed I’d never thought of it before.
“How far away is the horizon?”
What I was wondering was- how far can I actually see right now? It feels like you’re seeing all the way to the end of the earth. It’s not hard to imagine why primitive people once thought the earth was flat…and why some oddballs still do (watch out or we’ll start talking about how Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing). Jokes aside- I knew I couldn’t see the end of the earth- because I couldn’t even see land. If I could see all the way across I would have been able to see Portugal or Morocco or something like that. I’m not too good at geography.
But…surely the horizon is 100’s of miles away…right?
According to Google (and experimental AI), the horizon is about 3 miles away at sea level. 3 miles. That’s like an hour's walk (if you could walk across the ocean). In fact that’s disappointingly close. It feels vast and infinite to look out across the ocean but it’s actually the same distance as it is from your house to the grocery store. When I found that out- it sucked all the wonder out of that experience for me.
But I’m revisiting this experience this week as I think about hope. I’ll say more about this in a minute but let’s look at a passage first.
22 We know that the whole creation is groaning together and suffering labor pains up until now.23 And it’s not only the creation. We ourselves who have the Spirit as the first crop of the harvest also groan inside as we wait to be adopted and for our bodies to be set free. 24 We were saved in hope. If we see what we hope for, that isn’t hope. Who hopes for what they already see? 25 But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. Romans 8:22-25, CEB
Okay okay let me rant for a second. This passage makes it very clear that the Bible does not believe in what is now being called “toxic positivity.” If you’re not on Tic Tok, toxic positivity is basically the prosperity gospel re-packed: positive thoughts will lead to positive outcomes. Ignore the negative, embrace the positive, and everything will work out. It is ignorant optimism. By ignorant I mean- toxic positivity is refusing to deal with actual harsh realities that are part of life. Toxic Positivity is Tony Robbins telling everyone on earth that if they believe it they can achieve it. I’m sorry but that is horse shit.
Now- let me nuance myself a bit. This doesn’t mean that positivity can’t help us. It can. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t apply ourselves, we should. It doesn’t mean we should give ourselves permission not to try. Most people are capable of more than they think are, and learning that requires applying yourself, pushing yourself, maybe a little bit of commitment and discipline and so on. And we can still recognize the God’s honest actual truth: I was never going to play in the NBA no matter how hard I tried. No amount of willpower, positive attitude, or can-do attitude was going to make me even 6-feet tall, let alone 6-3, 6-4, or 6-5. I’m short, I’m slow, I’m uncoordinated, I’m low-energy, the list goes on.
The good news is- hope (biblical hope) has nothing to do with any of this. Hope is not blindly believing that you can manipulate the universe with “good vibes only.” It’s not about creating your “ideal” future by setting an intention and actionable goals. So let’s talk about the passage.
Creation groans and suffers. Why? Because things are not as they should be. There is pain, sadness, unfairness, injustice, and evil. If we could simply get the exact life we want for ourselves by “believing and achieving” then we might say creation is what it should be. It would at least be fair. But this isn’t the case. In fact- the passage suggests that we are kind of trapped in this version of creation…not even truly free.
What saves us? What sets us free?
Well…hope. But hope for what? What kind of hope?
The hope that God will one day transform creation into what it was always meant to be: a place defined by God’s ideal way of life. That way of life is free from judgment, full of mercy, grace, and steadfast love. It’s free from pain and suffering and full of God’s spirit. This doesn’t happen because of our beliefs, or because of the power of positive thinking, it happens because this is what God intends to accomplish. It’s what He’s been working on since the beginning of creation. Creation was always meant to be a place that perfectly embodies God’s love…and God has been (perhaps too slowly, if we could utter a complaint) in the process of transforming creation into that very place from day one.
The work is not yet finished…but it one day will be. That is our hope. That is what inspires us to embody God’s love in the present- to offer the world a taste of what’s to come. More success and more achievement don’t offer us any kind of glimpse into the world God is creating…love is the thing that does that.
And, according to the passage, it’s hard to see that God is doing this. It’s difficult to believe. It requires patience. Unlike the prosperity gospel and the gospel of toxic positivity, scripture suggests that we must exercise patience and endure hardship. Pain and suffering are not things we can simply overcome by making “better” choices. They are things we tolerate while we wait upon the Lord.
Now, if I’ve done my job well, then you’ve totally forgotten about the fact that I started us off by talking about the horizon. But I haven’t forgotten! So why was I talking about all that?
As I was thinking about hope this week- it changed how I looked at this experience with the horizon. Remember- I was disappointed to find out that the horizon was so close when it seemed so far. Finding out the truth robbed me of a bit of joy and wonder. But…could there be a different metaphor we could draw out of this that might help me reverse course?
Here’s what I’ve got in mind. It can seem discouraging to think about trying to find hope in something that seems so far away. To put it differently- the idea that God will one day finish His work on creation might not inspire that much hope. It might seem too distant to have any emotional connection to.
But what if it weren’t so far away? What if it looks like 100’s of miles away but it’s only 3? What if we can make it seem closer based on how we live?
This is the whole point of the “first fruits” talk in this passage after all. The full harvest is not yet here, but it’s starting. The first few fruits of the crop are starting to appear. The first few kernels of popcorn are popping. We don’t have a whole bowl yet, but we know it’s coming.
Except, in this case, the thing that’s coming is more of God’s love. And we can make it seem closer by spreading the love we have received to those around us here, in the present moment. The more love is spread, the more of the “first fruits” we see. In this way, the horizon doesn’t seem so far off. In fact, it just feels like a refining of what we’re already experiencing if we’re grounded in a community that surrounds us with love.
All that to say- hope doesn’t require you to lie to yourself. And it doesn’t require you to pretend like bad things are actually good for you. No, hope is about learning to love and trusting that will be contagious and lead to even more love. More love reminds us that God is on the horizon…and that the horizon is not so far away.
