Living Hope

[236 words] John Maxwell tells about a small town in Maine that was proposed for the site of a great hydroelectric plant. A dam would be built across the river and the town submerged. When the project was announced, the people were given many months to arrange their affairs and relocate. During those months, a curious thing happened. All improvements ceased. Day by day the whole town got shabbier and shabbier. A long time before the waters came, the town looked uncared for and abandoned, even though the people had not yet moved away. One citizen explained: “Where there is no hope in the future, there is no power in the present.” That town was cursed with hopelessness because it had no future. Now spiritually speaking suppose I said there was no heaven, no resurrection from the dead, no Bible, no church, no Christ or no God. How would we…