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| Sunrise over Corfu |
'Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Pit your hope in God for I will yet praise him, my saviour and my God.' Psalms 42:5
The sun will come up tomorrow. This is not a statement of inevitability, it is a statement of hope, optimism and expectation. The phrase comes from the title of a song in the 1977 musical 'Annie.' Li'l Orphan Annie is an eleven-year-old girl; a plucky, generous, compassionate, and optimistic youngster. In 2014, modern version of the motion picture 'Annie', starring Quvenzhané Wallis was released.
It was this song 'The Sun Will Come Up Tomorrow' that captures her optimism and enthusiasm
The sun will come out tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
There'll be sun
Just thinkin' about tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs and the the sorrow
'Til there's none
When I'm stuck with a day
That's gray and lonely
I just stick out my chin
And grin and say, oh
The sun'll come out tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on 'til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow, tomorrow
I love ya tomorrow
Your're always a day away
Today we are stuck with this horrendous Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the potential of second and other waves, many of us hang on to prospect that it will disappear one day. There will be a tomorrow where the Covid-19 virus will be eradicated. We refuse to be brought to heel and those who believe in tomorrow can live better today.
This is Christianity, a religion of hope. The Lord assures us in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Indeed those of us who have no hope for the future cannot live creative and purposeful lives today.
Martyn Lloyd Jones described a living hope that, " not only enables a man to go through the very worst that hell can produce against him. This lively hope also enables him to do so with assurance, and with a sense of triumph." He quotes from Romans 8:37-39, 'No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'
This optimistic hope is witness of true Christianity and opens up an avenue for evangelising. The hope in every Christian even in the darkest of times can be a beacon of light. 'Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asked you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear' 1 Peter 3:15
So what is the reason for the hope that is in us? The love of Christ
Lionel
