Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 1373 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Hope Beyond The Horizon – Ask Gramps

Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1373 of our Trek and time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday, we will ponder some of the fundamental truths and mysteries of life, and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy. As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time where we can ‘Ask Gramps.’  Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason, this is not possible. No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.

We may mix it up a bit on our Friday episodes, but will strive to keep them down to earth and enjoyable.  If you have any questions that you would like to ask Gramps, please email them to guthrie@wisdom-trek.com

So the question for this week is:

“Hey, Gramps, I am struggling with keeping my hope alive with the social-distancing restrictions in place. Even though there seems to be some possibility of slowly lifting those restrictions, what advice do you have to help me strengthen my hope?

Hope Beyond The Horizon

The entire world is still, for the most part, under shelter in place orders due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been such a trying and uncertain time for so many people. I see that many have lost their hope. Some have lost their jobs. Some may lose their businesses. Some have become ill, and yes, some have lost their life. It is so easy to lose hope during these times.

It appears that throughout the world, these sacrifices have prevented many from becoming ill and dying. While there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon because it seems that some business can start gradually opening back up, there is in the back of our minds, will this cause a resurgence of the virus. This certainly creates a dampening of that hope.

If we put our hope solely in government officials, disease experts, statistics, modeling, and news reports, it becomes difficult to maintain that hope. It seems like their stories change every week. As Christ-followers, our hope is not based on any of these, although they may keep us informed. We are not responsible for this virus and its restrictions, but we are responsible for how we react to our current situation. 1 Peter 3:14-15 But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats. Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.I have to admit, though, even for the most mature Christ-followers, there are days where it is difficult to maintain a reasonable level of hope. Our world, as we knew it will probably never return to what was normal. We have to make sure that we are prepared, in our minds and heart, for whatever our new normal becomes. Nobody on earth, at this point, knows what that will be. So today, I would like to offer four steps along the road of having a life with hope, meaning, and purpose, even during these days.

I believe that the first thing we must accept is that hope exists. There is hope. Before we can decide what to believe in, we need to understand that there is something to believe in. Some people look at the world and dismiss hope, choosing to focus on chance and coincidence, chaos, and disorder. I’ve seen enough to know that they are wrong. There is hope. It exists. It can be found. It can be embraced.I believe that hope is in God. Many of those who have given up on finding hope have done so because they spent their time looking to the wrong things, as I mentioned above. People place their hope in other government programs and people, only to be let down. Prior to this pandemic, many people placed their faith in wealth and possessions, only now to have that faith shaken by economic turmoil. Others look to science and our experts in diseases, but find that the hope science offers is short-term, not reaching beyond the limits of this world’s experts. Only God can offer hope for this life by offering a promise of another life to come.

I believe that God offers hope through his son Jesus. There aren’t multiple paths to God; there is only Jesus who proclaimed himself in John 14:6, Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. Jesus offers us the way to overcome the things in our life that separate us from God. He doesn’t just ask us to live right; he makes it possible for us to do just that. He brings us the hope of mercy and forgiveness, rather than judgment and plague.

I believe that each of us can share in that life of hope. We can come to God in obedient faith, placing our hope in him and becoming part of a large community of people who have chosen his way of life. We can also share this hope through our lives to those who are struggling to maintain hope. This can be done, even while we are social-distancing. This also reminds me of our couple of lines in the old hymn ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness,’ which says, “Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!”

That is a wrap for today’s question. Join us again next Friday for another question on our ‘Ask Gramps’ episode. Our next trek is Mediation Monday, where we will help you reflect on what is most important in life. So encourage your friends and family to join us and then come along on Monday for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.’ If you would like to listen to any of the past 1372 daily treks or read the associated journals, they are all available at Wisdom-Trek.com. I encourage you to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on your favorite podcast player so that each day will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most of all, your friend as I serve you in through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

I am Guthrie Chamberlain….reminding you to ’Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday’! See you on Monday!