The great Kentucky writer, Wendell Berry, once wrote:

“A man cannot despair if he can imagine a better life, and if he can enact something of its possibility.” (from The Unforeseen Wilderness about preserving Red River Gorge)

As I understand it, Berry is saying that hope lives when people are promised something in the future and are confident that the promise can be kept/fulfilled. Of course, he was speaking about matters that relate to conservation and taking care of the physical world around us, but it applies to the Christian life as well!

We should not despair because Jesus has promised us a better future.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14:3)

In that place prepared for those who belong to the Lord:

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Rev. 7:16-17)

We should not despair because God has the power to fulfill all promises.

Consider these words about the power of God and the significance of the resurrection:

Knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence. (2 Cor. 4:14)

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. (Romans 8:11)

Therefore, we do not lose heart. (2 Cor. 4:16a)

Thanks to Jesus, we can imagine a better life!

Thanks to Jesus, we can enact the possibility of being with Him in Heaven forever!

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His. (Rom. 6:3-5)

Praise God, we have a reason for hope.