Clusters of Hope

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By John Piper

It is amazing how much hope you can find when you look hard for it, and hope is a desperately needed power in our lives. It is the river of joy that flows back to us from the final triumph of God, and "the joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10). We simply cannot live without hope—let alone flourish in the cause of God.

So maybe we should go harder after hope than we do. I have in mind specifically the most exhilarating hope of all—namely, the hope that God's saving purposes are now triumphing in the world and will one day hold sway over all creation.

How shall we go harder after this hope? First of all, we can't do it alone. Without each other's cheering exhortations we sink. God saves one from despair by giving another a vision of hope. He does not always come directly. God's work of encouragement in you saves me. His work of encouragement in me saves you.

Second, we need to be intentional and disciplined. This is too important to leave to chance or coincidence. Emotional strength can be fed and nurtured just like physical strength can. If we make up our minds to become strong, we can do it. Most of us leave the resources of hope to happenstance and then wonder why we are so often disheartened.

I am proposing that we get as serious about strengthening hope in the triumph of God as we are about earning a living. It is amazing how we manage to get up and go to work. Only the most severe cases of depression keep us out of work and require hospitalization or home rest. So I suggest that we go as hard and as systematically after hope as we do after the money that feeds our less important need for food.

Here's my idea: Find a few people who will pledge to meet for a few months together specifically to stoke the fire of hope in the triumph of God. Not less than three. It could be a dozen. Meet perhaps for breakfast or lunch somewhere for about an hour, maybe once every two weeks; but if you have time, every week.

Let's call them Clusters of Hope! Remember, it will take some diligent pursuit. One of the reasons we do not find hope is because we do not seek it with the same discipline we use to get to work in the morning. But it is more important than getting to work!

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