Honoring our elders for the Thai New Year

And playing water to celebrate the Thai New Year

Family Strengthening brings joy to the vulnerable

 Greetings from Thailand!  

And welcome back to our series on building a better life!  

Our topic today feels especially appropriate for today's political/spiritual climate, but I believe it is applicable anywhere, at any time, under any circumstances.  

I want to say from the start that hope is not the same as wishful thinking. 

Hope is confidence in the power of good that inspires joy and creative work.  

Wishful thinking is a form of escapism, whereas hope is a form of motivation.  

A man who buys a lottery ticket is engaging in wishful thinking.
A man who who designs an appropriate technology, or discovers a medical breakthrough, or works for policy reform to alleviate the suffering of people is practicing hope.  

Choosing to live hopefully, rather than cynically, isn't just about feeling better (covering our ears in the midst of crisis singing la la la), but the very act of trying to hope, actually can makes things better.  

In my humble estimation, the loss of that truth is one of the chief reason so many young people are depressed today.  

It can often feel like, given the circumstances, we have no choice but to be cynical.  

But reading history, or meeting people from third world countries can be a powerful counterpoint.

So fun to get the homemade pontoon boat back out with friends!

My girls!

Audrey 4-wheeling in the jungle

What we seem to have lost along the way, for many people is resiliency---the belief that God made us tough and we can overcome more than we might imagine.  

If you have young children, you have probably seen the cartoon Bluey.  It is great, and my kids love it.  Whenever one of the kids gets a minor hurt, the Dad says to the child: 

"Good thing you are are tough."

For young people today, they hear so much more about what may be wrong with them, than they do about all that is right and strong about them.  They are constantly being told they are victims, but almost never told they can be victors.   

For most of us, it isn't that the circumstances we are facing are insurmountable, but that we have lost confidence, lost hope, in the ability to overcome them.  

Hope and cynicism are perspectives and therefore, choices.  

Every morning, we wake up to a new world. 
A thousand challenges, decisions, and demands clamor for our attention. 

And in that moment, we are faced with a decision---will will live today in hope? 
Or will we live in fear?

It doesn't always feel like a choice, but it is!  

There are practices we can do to build up hope in our own hearts and minds. 

There are practices we can build up to fight fear in our hearts and minds. 
It takes work, but the work brings freedom.  

So let's dive in and look at how to build a better life by cultivating hope and starving fear in our daily lives.  

Keeping kids in school is one of the simplest ways to fight poverty

Strong babies grow into strong kids

Safety Third

One of my mottos in life is safety third (ok, just kidding sort of).  

Frequently, we are told that "Safety First" is a good general principle
(in politics, often by people who want us to give them more power so they can make us "safe").
  
Maybe Safety First has its place as a principle, but it is a terrible philosophy of life.   

In fairness, my natural disposition has always rebelled against this. 
But it has become a more thoughtful, and conscious rebellion as I grow older.  

There are things in life more important than safety.  

Don't get me wrong, safety and security are a huge part of a good life.  The fact that I can talk about them lightly is proof I have been blessed with a safe, secure life.  

But safety is not everything, or even the most important thing.  

You certainly could not say that Safety First was Jesus' motto. 

If it was, we would all be in trouble. 
Yet, Jesus lived a good life---he was happy, he loved and was loved, he had purpose, and did good in the world.  

Culturally, America has become safety obsessed, and we all are worse off for it.  

We will sure miss the Bieks!

Hot Date!

Chiang Mai is a city of contrasts, we must go to where the vulnerable are

Part of the sell of the safety squad is that the world is an extremely dangerous, hostile place. 

Granted, the world can be a dangerous place, but that is like calling cement mean because it is hard. 
We need cement to be hard if it is going to do what we need it to do. 
We might as well call bees bad for stinging.   

I am not saying this is intentional on everyone's part, but certainly on the part of some---especially those in political positions of power.  

Fear sells.  And fear can lead people to do a lot of things they wouldn't normally do or giving up what they wouldn't normally give up.  

There is a great irony in a cultural trend that mocked belief in God or an afterlife as a weakness (or opiate of the people), but has then moved to an almost ceaseless anxiety and terror of every looming calamity.  

Again, I am not saying there are not times for practical precautions. 
What I am saying is that fear is like a snowball rolling downhill. 
If we are not careful, it can gain momentum and size very fast.

What does safety have to do with hope? 

A good life cannot be built on safety, it must be built on purpose.  

Sometimes that purpose will require risk.

No only is it morally right in such cases to take on those risks, it is also life-affirming and brings with it a certain joy.  

To take a risk, even to to suffer harm in the pursuit of great goal or purpose you believe in can actually enrich your life.  

Having a sense of purpose, and hope are the most powerful combination I know of for enduring the hardness, and pain of life.  

More than that, hope is based on a proper view of fear.  

Our outsized, obsessive perception of fear has drowned out hope for many of us.  
We want to reverse that. 
Let our outsized, outlandish hope drown out fear.  

Thimbletack for book character day at school

Naturally, when choosing a hotel the most important factor to consider is the waterpark

Cute Kayaker

So how can we build hope?

Practice.

I heard a podcast recently and a woman sharing was explaining that courage can only be learned through experience.  

You learn to play the piano by playing the piano.  
You learn to ride a motorcycle by riding a motorcycle.  
You learn courage by trying to being brave in frightening circumstances (isn't that cool?). 

Hope is the same way; you learn hope by practicing being hopeful in difficult circumstances.  

Think how this concept alone could change your outlook on your life.

What it that painful circumstances were not punishments or karma, but an opportunity God sent you to help you develop courage or hope?

It might sound cliche, but looking for a bright side, or something positive in the midst of difficult circumstances is a good coping strategy.  It is part of developing resilience---the ability to overcome.  

I wish you could meet some of our kids here in Thailand.  

Most of them have overcome obstacles greater than most any I will likely ever face.  
What they teach me is that our fears are often over-sized, and our hopes are often under-sized.  

I told Audrey we needed a jumping platform on the boat

Audrey designed the Grace International School Yearbook this year!

We love little babies

It is easy to find something discouraging in your life.
But it can also be easy to find something encouraging in your life.  

Perspective sometimes matters more than mere facts. 

Choose to be optimistic. 
Why not? 
What have you to lose?

Choose to be hopeful.  
Yes, your hopes may get dashed once and a while.  
But what is the alternative?  

To never have hopes?  To live in cynicism and despair, always waiting for the next misfortune, so you can tell yourself 'I told you so'?  

So practice hope.  

Look for the good. 
Hope for it.
Expect it. 
Then go help bring it about.  

Cuties!

Cooling off from the hot weather

The government requires us to take photos to document our work.  Sometimes its a bit comical

The Foundations Undergirding Hope

Under the walls of your house is a foundation, which supports and upholds the structure of your house.  

Likewise, underneath your daily activity is a set of beliefs and assumptions about life and the world that supports and upholds your life.  

The quality of that foundation will determine how well your house or your life stands up in the midst of storms.  

I am a Christian and follower of Jesus. 
This is another way of saving I have a particular hope.  

I am not hoping in a vague idea that things will get better, but in a loving, powerful God who loves us.  

It shouldn't be surprising then, that I think the teachings of Jesus, about life, the world, purpose, and joy are the best foundations for a good life.  

I am not saying people with other beliefs are not capable of living well, only that by and large, more people seem to live well (happily and for the good of others) with this particular foundation than any other I know of.  

We meet a lot of cute little guys

Faithful Heart Staff Retreat!

It is hard to practice hope if the greatest resource for good you know is yourself, or other humans.  

We need something bigger, something better---both is scope and in power.  

This isn't the place for a long apologetic, but I will say this: unless you are living a life you are proud of and would advise others to follow, what is their to lose in reexamining some of your own beliefs and assumptions?  

More to the point, if you are struggling with despair, cynicism, and a lack of hope, why not examine the foundations of those feelings?  

We just celebrated Easter and I was asked to preach at our Thai Church.  

The Christian story of Easter is unlike any other I know.  
I have nothing against bunnies and egg hunts, but there is something so much more interesting about Easter than our lighthearted cultural traditions.  

Chiefly, the idea of resurrection.  

There really is no way around the idea of resurrection in Christianity. 
No resurrection from the dead= no Christianity.  

But it is more than a doctrinal statement.  

Resurrection is the unquenchable answer of hope for anything we are facing in life.  

The resurrection of one particular man; Jesus, and the promise of resurrection for all men.  

People have at times, viewed religion as an opiate for the people, that numbs them to the pain and harshness of life.  

Yum!

The ATV adventure was a bit more than we bargained for :-)

But the question is not if we all use an opiate or not to get through life, but which one and with what effects.  

In our time, religion has become sort of taboo and embarrassing, but antidepressants and therapy have become much more accepted.  Those aren't bad things in themselves.  

But they are telling things.  

It tells us almost none of us can get through life without some help or hope. 

The real question is what is the help or hope, and what results does it produce in people's lives?

I asked our church to list their greatest fears and we wrote them down on a whiteboard together.  

Then I had them do a simple exercise.  I said look at this list, and tell me which of those fears would not be answered by resurrection.  

As the great poet (rapper) once said:

"Besides kill me, there ain't really s**t you can do to me."

It was a boast that he wasn't afraid to die, that he had nothing to lose.   

Now imagine a hope that no only took away our fear of death, but at the same time gave us a reason to live?  

That is a foundation that can support a powerful life.  
Indeed, it has and continues to support some of the most courageous and selfless lives the world has ever seen.   

With lots of love and hope, 

Matt, Audrey, Ezra, and Sienna