What do you hope for? What are you looking forward to? If you could design the future what would it look like? It is something unique to humans (as far as we know) that we can both reflect on our past, examine our present and dream and think about the future. We can look back or we can look ahead and whichever one we do the most impacts how we live in the present.

If someone was to honestly answer the first two questions with ‘nothing’ then we would be worried because being hope-less speaks to an unhappy and unhealthy present. Hope therefore is something we need. Young people fearing a world that may become unlivable in their or their children’s lifetime are avoiding starting families because, ‘what’s the point?’, there is no hope.

Goff Hope’s new book Hope Wins is both timely, helpful and you’ll be pleased to hear, hopeful. Goff, (full disclosure here, is a friend of mine) has also had his own hope fully stress tested. He has lived with Stage 3 cancer for the past decade or so. And he and his wife Angie had to find hope amidst the tragedy of their daughter Ali who fell ill suddenly while on holiday and was dead within two weeks. The death of someone you love so much that you’d give your own life for, is certainly something that puts your own hope to the test.

Those two events plus perhaps the UK’s experience of COVID which seems to have profoundly affected people, ground this book in the struggles and sorrows of life. You know some of this book has been written with tears and there is a warmth and empathy towards people in similar situations. There are chapters on ‘hope in the face of illness’, ‘hope in the face of death’, ‘hope in the face of suffering’, ‘Why, O Lord?’ that are searching for solid ground when everything else seems uncertain.

So where do we find hope? Well, Goff turns to scriptures and find it suffused, infused, filled with hope. Hope in the gospel, hope because of the gospel. Hope of salvation, hope of a renewed world, hope of resurrection, hope of reunion with those we’ve loved and lost, hope of a renewed world. Faith in Christ gives us much cause to have hope now and so much to look forward to. And all of that makes a difference to how you live each and every day.

Our future hope as Christians, properly grasped, not only enriches our lives, driving out our insecurities and fears, but equips us to walk through the darkest moments. It prevents us from being crushed by disappointments, distracted by fleeting worldly alternatives, and keeps us bonded to our Saviour while on our journey.

What struck me as I read the book was not just hope but joy and a clear sense that the one had caused the other and formed a virtuous circle. As Goff trusted in the hope of Christ it gave him great joy, as he sang of his hope in Christ even in the pain he found joy. Hope & joy seemed to link up and form something of a lifeline for Goff as he ascended to his attic study to read his Bible and sing to his Jesus.

If I was to use just one word to describe this book, I think I’d choose ‘encouraging’. I am encouraged, I have been emboldened, and given courage to keep trusting because the God of the Bible has shown himself faithful time and time and time again. So let us not lose hope.

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Links are affiliate links which give me a small commission, just so you know. Also Goff sent me a free copy of this book but it all evened out as I had to pay customs to pick it up.