Anxiety is up. Frustration is high. Anger boils over. AI will take over the world. “I, Robot” was right all along.

There is a difference between living with optimism and living with hope. In the face of apocalypse, we usually try to find people who gravitate to optimism. (I used to be an eternal optimist. That was crushed about 8 years ago. You do the math.)

Jonathan Asknonas makes a case for what is needed in these days in his article, “Building a Future in the Face of the Apocalypse.” (This might be behind a paywall.) Askonas writes:

The solution to a society increasingly pessimistic and anxious toward its future is not optimism, the piling up of facts on the bright side. It is hope. Hope is not just an emotion — the belief or feeling that things will turn out well. It is a virtue we must practice – the willful affirmation of the goodness of the world, even when (or perhaps especially when) obvious disaster looms.

For Christians, hope is a virtue. It finds its proper object in God. It is the deep conviction that God is the author of history. Not humanity.

To practice the virtue of hope is to take action that depends on the responsiveness of the world toward the good, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

Askonas refers to two parables in Matthew 25 that talk about how two groups faced uncertainty: the parable of the wedding party and the parable of the talents. The wedding party faced the uncertainty of when the groom would arrive. Half of them stayed ready knowing the groom would be there while the other half wondered if the groom would ever show up.

The three servants were given financial responsibilities. Two of them moved with certainty because they knew the boss well. The third one moved with uncertainty because he thought he knew the boss well.

In the face of uncertainty, what do we do?

For Christians, the uncertainty of our times shouldn’t paralyze us or make us anxious. It should spur us to bold and hopeful action. The end will come. But we live in the hope of the One who will bring about that end. He is the One that when all is said and done, promises that all will be well.

Live in hope. Live in courage. The times may get hard. Promised ahead is suffering and hardship (which is probably why most believers don’t read Revelation very well). But to live in hope is to know our future is secure in HIM, not the anxiety of others.

(SIDE NOTE: If you are looking for a serious magazine in Christian thought, I highly recommend Comment Magazine, where I got this article. It is an outstanding publication.)