The Engine Of Life: Hope
Pacers, Politics, and Placement
Disclaimer: I talk a lot about sports in this blog, but this is not about sports. If you’re not a sports fan, just give me a few minutes of your attention, let it breathe, it’s all going somewhere, I promise.
A New Hope
A few weeks ago, the nation gathered together to watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals, where the league’s best team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, faced off against a massive underdog in the Indiana Pacers. Neither team had ever won an NBA Championship, and by the end of that game, one would be crowned the champion. It was the first time an NBA Finals went to 7 games since 2016, and it drew the largest audience for any NBA game since 2019, the 3rd largest basketball game in the last 10 years.
The entire basketball world and beyond tuned in for a couple of reasons:
It was do or die — winner takes all.
It wasn’t even supposed to get to 7 games. Most analysts had Oklahoma City either winning 4-0, possibly 4-1, or 4-2 if Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana’s best player, could pull off some more magic. Nobody had it going 7 games, and they certainly didn’t have the Pacers winning the series.
Many old basketball heads say that both teams play basketball “the way it was meant to be played”. Interpret that how you’d like.
You could not have scripted this any better. The whole series started off with a bang when Indiana, led by Haliburton, came back down 15 points in the 4th quarter to steal Game 1 on the road, thanks to a game-winning shot (almost buzzer-beater —.3 seconds away) by Haliburton. From that moment, all of basketball knew we were about to witness something in the next week or two as the series unfolded.
Even before Haliburton’s game-winning shot against Oklahoma City, he had made two others in the same playoffs against Milwaukee and Cleveland, and a game-tying shot to force overtime against New York, which eventually ended in a victory. Haliburton was on an insane run, unlike almost any NBA player before him in terms of clutch shot-making. From an Indiana fan’s point of view, it was something I had not experienced in over a decade, ever since Peyton Manning left the Colts.
Haliburton had given me an unwavering hope.
It wasn’t until his second game-winning shot against Cleveland two rounds before that I started to say this team was one of destiny. He only continued to prove me right. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Indiana came back against New York, down 17 in the 4th quarter, and cut the deficit to 9 with 51.1 seconds to go. No team in the history of the NBA playoffs had ever come back down 9+ with under a minute to go…
Until Tyrese Haliburton and his Pacers did that night.
After hitting the game-tying shot to send it to overtime, Haliburton hit the New York crowd with one of these:
Credit to the Associated Press for the above photograph
Choke. The New York Knicks choked a lead no one had ever choked before. A sports experience like that, coupled with the other game-winning shots, gave me something that cannot be manufactured: hope.
Rarely does an athlete come around to your sports team that can give you unshakeable hope. You can think of them now. For me, it was Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck for the Colts, and now Tyrese Haliburton for the Pacers. It’s a hope that is not tied to game situations or current circumstances. Down three touchdowns with 5 minutes to go? Don’t go to bed (looking at you, Mom!) because Peyton will give us a chance.
7 minutes into Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Tyrese Haliburton made three 3-pointers to give us an early lead. The moment was his; this was going to define his legacy. My belief that this team would win its first NBA Championship was unchallenged.
“Destiny. A team of destiny. You cannot get in the way of fate.” I told myself.
And then: snap.
His Achilles tendon tears while driving to the hoop. Out for the rest of the game. My source of hope, gone. I so desperately didn’t want to believe we were going to lose the game and the championship, so I trusted in something else.
“Rick [the coach] has got this. He’ll use the bench, he’ll make adjustments. We’ve got this.”
When it was clear that no amount of coaching was going to be able to overcome the talent deficit, I blindly started to hope that we’d see a career day from one of our veterans.
“Gonna need 40 from Siakim tonight.”
But, really, it was hopeless. When I had nowhere to place my hope, I gave in to despair. Halfway through the 4th quarter is when I finally accepted our new fate, and I might have been one of the last Pacers fans to do so.
Despite all of that, I turned the game off, went to bed a little bummed, but moved on pretty quickly, because it’s just a game.
What Hope (and lack thereof) Does
In sports, hope is all we can ask for. If we feel like there’s a chance of winning the game, any non-zero chance, then we watch our team with hope. When the light of our hope burns out, then the despair of failure sets in.
In real life, hope is infinitely more vital. Oftentimes, hope is the difference between life and death. When hope runs out in a person’s soul, the reasons to be productive or even continuing to live become short. When it becomes a matter of life and death, it is no wonder that human beings will put their hope in literally anything. A career, family, hobby, entertainment, service, schooling, and anything in between can be used as the reason for our hope.
Hope truly is the engine for our life. Without it, what’s the point? With it, there are no limits to life.
Hope gets us out the door every day, but more than that it fuels us to live life well. Hope of a future reward is powerful. It guides us in our mood, struggles, relationships and successes. When life takes a wrong turn, our hope can keep us on the right path and trust in the plan.
But a lack of hope, well that’s like flying with no wings, or going into battle with no armor. Everything becomes meaningless at that point. When the thing you have put your hope in is defeated, then so are you.
Remember the prophet Jonah? When he reluctantly preached to Nineveh of the coming judgement and instructed them to repent and believe in Israel’s God, his heart actually wanted to see their destruction. When God did in fact show mercy on Nineveh, this was his response:
“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.
Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:1, 3)
Jonah put his hope in the wrong thing. He put his hope in his religious superiority, which was utterly defeated by God’s mercy.
So, what can we place our hope in that won’t be defeated?
Where To Place Hope
Currently, in the United States, it can’t be overstated how much people place their hope in the present political situation. Almost no demographic is immune to this. For some, President Trump is the fulfillment of long awaited promises that America could return to an era of greatness, therefore their lives will be great. For others, President Trump is the worst case scenario, a sign of the country’s moral decay and decline into fascism, which will undoubtedly make their lives worse. Both can have their opinions about whether they are better or worse because of the administration in power, but it goes beyond neutral political opinions. Political outlooks have become what many have placed their hope in.
As long as Trump is in power, the hope that some people have is white-hot. For others, the despair has turned into hopelessness. Both of these people have wholly placed their destiny, purpose and overarching narrative of their life into the hands of the Presidency.
Christians are not exempt from this, and I would call this idolatry. Many Christians on the Right have boldly proclaimed that if the Left gets in power that our right to worship freely is in jeopardy, amongst other fears. Those on the Left fear that if the Right are in power long enough, then only white Christians will be able to worship freely, leaving the door open for other religious groups to be persecuted, amongst other fears.
The fear on both sides has reached apocalyptic proportions and both are using the opportunity to “bend the rules” in order to make sure their side wins. Both twist the words of Scripture, ignore Jesus’ teachings, and conveniently forget the Gospel partially or altogether in order to gain an advantage over the other side. It is all because of what their hope truly lies in: obtaining worldly power.
For the non-believer, this fear is understandable. The only hope available to them is of this earth.
For the Christian, however, the hope that my future can be secure if I can get the right political party in power is one that is anti-Gospel and anti-Christian. The kingdoms and rulers of this world have no control over the Kingdom of God. Consider what Isaiah said,
“Thus says the Lord:
‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is the place of my rest?’”
(Isaiah 66:1)
Politics really is just one out of many examples, although it’s the most universal. Personally, over the course of two years, my dominating hope at one point had been the prospect of having a baby. But when that hope was in jeopardy the foundation of my world started to crumble. Doubts about who God was and what he wanted for me became real. Through that time, by God’s grace, He showed me that the ordering of my hopes was wrong and that I was placing my hope in circumstances ahead of my hope in knowing Him.
Who, or what, we place our hope in really matters. We can say our hope is in God, but when circumstances in our life change and doubts about God start to arise, then we know that our hope was misplaced. When we can place our hope fully in God, then nothing can shake us. This is why we are reminded to place our hope in the unchanging word of God,
“You are my hiding place and my shield;
I hope in your word.” (Psalm 119:114)
The hope that the message of the Gospel brings is enough for a lifetime, for every generation. The Gospel is that the Kingdom of God is now a present and future reality because of the one person, Jesus Christ, who the Apostle Paul said, “could not be held by [death].” When Christ resurrected, he proved that he was the only source of everlasting hope for a blessed life now and a blessed life to come. All other sources are subject to the decay that sin and death bring.
If you don’t have your hope placed in Jesus Christ, ask yourself: where is it placed and can it be destroyed? Is the source of your hope stronger than death? Does this hope give you any assurance like Christ has?
“And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)
When we place our hope in the “God of hope”, we can be filled “joy and peace in believe, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit [we] may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13)