Hope in the 2020s

MY NAME IS ON THE FRONT OF A REAL LIFE BOOK THAT'S NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE

For the first time in the history of the world, my name is on the front of a book!

No, it’s not time for Theologizin’ Bigger yet. But this is still huge for me. I’m still in shock that little ol’ me gets to write words for other people to read.

It’s called Hope in the 2020s: Encouragement for Our Time.

In this particular offering, the authors of Lake Drive books team up to try and… well… make you hopeful.

It’s a collection of hope-filled essays, and it’s available on Amazon (Kindle & paperback!) right now!

I’m hopeful (get it?!) that you’ll find this project worthwhile. In the meantime, I’d like to give you a brief excerpt of my contribution.

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We make God sound so small sometimes. Petty. Fragile.

Entire systematic theologies articulating exactly who (or what) God is have been constructed, disseminated, and passed down for centuries now. We got the cute lil’ acronyms and everything (looking at you, TULIP). I’ll be real with you—that kinda god don’t sound too good to me. The love of this god even seems sorta like hate from time to time. This god ain’t worried about faith. Certainty is rewarded in his kingdom. Hope is folly in the world ruled by this tiny god. What good is hope when we are already certain about the course this god would take us on?

This god has condemned our imagination. Our imagination has been cast into the lake of fire, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Without imagination, there is no hope. There is just the tomorrow we cannot muster up the energy to look forward to. We dread the future this teeny god has authored for us.

Or maybe it’s just me. I could be projecting.

It’s weird. Technology has done a number on what we are able to envision for ourselves. The smart phone reshaped the western world in the past fifteen years. Twitter gave us access to news headlines faster than ever before. It was dope. At first. But then the news got sort of… well… depressing. On top of that, social media also gave us access to everyone’s thoughts. And if we’re being honest? A lot of those thoughts stink. Ain’t it funny? The same technology that placed entire libraries into the palms of our hands also made everybody’s family reunions super uncomfortable. We gotta decide if we’re gonna pretend we didn’t see Uncle Jimbo go full Archie Bunker on Facebook, or if we’re gonna give him a piece of our mind.

The Jetsons had us ready for flying cars by now. The cutting edge of technology left us with people wanting to “Make America Great Again” instead.

Indeed, our imagination is shot.

But what if God is really a creator? And what if humans are really created in the image of God? Not the small, petty, fragile god—but the God whose Spirit hovered over the chaos before the beginning began to begin? What if we can find hope in a bigger God? What if this God not only is desperately committed to saving our souls, but also redeeming our imaginations as well? That would require faith in something we have yet to see. That sounds like the type of stuff I’m into.

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You can purchase Hope in the 2020s: Encouragement for Our Time here.

If you grab a copy, I’d absolutely love it if you took a picture with it and shared it with me!