Hope Where Hope Belongs
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, always praying for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven… Colossians 1:3-5a, New King James Version
all go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to the dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth? So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? Ecclesiastes 3:19-22, New King James Version
When Bob Dylan's lyrics and Ellen DeGeneres's comedic rift land on the same point, we know we have traction. DeGeneres played a character on the 90s sitcom Mad About You who unknowingly auditioned for a role as a nanny when the infant child of the two main characters was upset. She observed, "I know why you're crying. You type like zero words per minute, and you're wearing a leisure suit covered in ducks, apparently." Even after we get rid of a wardrobe that might include leisure suits with ducks, Dylan laments in "Desolation Row," "Her profession's her religion. Her sin's her lifelessness."
The tendency to identify tenaciously with what we do and how well we do it is even older than either of these instances. Having found frustration and futility everywhere else, Solomon actually trumpets the comparative solace a person can find in a professional identity. When all else fails, he says, we can rejoice in our own work. That, says the wisest man who ever lived apart from Jesus Christ, is the best we can hope for.
A more full revelation on the other side of Christ's cross suggests an expansion of Solomon's perspective. Expansive love for the saints, even the ones we work with and work for, doesn't come from how productively we work or the durability of the vocational legend we establish. Paul's hinge in Colossians 1 is that expansive, reputation-building love for people happens BECAUSE of the hope which is laid up in Heaven.
If our hope is centered on Heaven and Heaven's King, in the assurance that we will be with Christ and will get from him intimacy and rewards no person, no profession, no promotion could offer, our hopes for earthly interactions will be much more realistic. As soon as we stop expecting fairness, accolades, fulfillment, and theological revelation from the stuff of Earth, we might actually be surprised how often God in His grace grants us glimpses of these realities to come. Placing our aspirations where they belong, we get life instead of lifelessness.
all go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to the dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth? So I perceived that nothing is better than that a man should rejoice in his own works, for that is his heritage. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him? Ecclesiastes 3:19-22, New King James Version
When Bob Dylan's lyrics and Ellen DeGeneres's comedic rift land on the same point, we know we have traction. DeGeneres played a character on the 90s sitcom Mad About You who unknowingly auditioned for a role as a nanny when the infant child of the two main characters was upset. She observed, "I know why you're crying. You type like zero words per minute, and you're wearing a leisure suit covered in ducks, apparently." Even after we get rid of a wardrobe that might include leisure suits with ducks, Dylan laments in "Desolation Row," "Her profession's her religion. Her sin's her lifelessness."
The tendency to identify tenaciously with what we do and how well we do it is even older than either of these instances. Having found frustration and futility everywhere else, Solomon actually trumpets the comparative solace a person can find in a professional identity. When all else fails, he says, we can rejoice in our own work. That, says the wisest man who ever lived apart from Jesus Christ, is the best we can hope for.
A more full revelation on the other side of Christ's cross suggests an expansion of Solomon's perspective. Expansive love for the saints, even the ones we work with and work for, doesn't come from how productively we work or the durability of the vocational legend we establish. Paul's hinge in Colossians 1 is that expansive, reputation-building love for people happens BECAUSE of the hope which is laid up in Heaven.
If our hope is centered on Heaven and Heaven's King, in the assurance that we will be with Christ and will get from him intimacy and rewards no person, no profession, no promotion could offer, our hopes for earthly interactions will be much more realistic. As soon as we stop expecting fairness, accolades, fulfillment, and theological revelation from the stuff of Earth, we might actually be surprised how often God in His grace grants us glimpses of these realities to come. Placing our aspirations where they belong, we get life instead of lifelessness.
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