Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.
- Hebrews 4:14
 
Jesus helps us hold firmly to our faith in the midst of the most difficult seasons. We know that he has not only been raised from the dead but also has ascended to a seat of authority and power. Our God is alive and active, at work on our behalf. Death and pain don’t have the final say in his life … or in ours!
 
Hope. That’s what Jesus gives us: hope that the bad stuff won’t endure forever; hope that the bad stuff won’t overwhelm us; and hope that the bad stuff won’t have the final say. He carries our hope with him, safe and secure, shining in the heavens. Jesus becomes our beacon guiding us through the dark night.
 
Centering our hope on Jesus and holding firmly to our faith allows us to reject the unhealthy options that present themselves to us in our times of crisis:

• We refuse to settle for empty philosophies that would tell us that evil isn’t really evil or that God isn’t engaged with the world or that God doesn’t love us. We embrace the tension and resist rationalizations. We can’t believe any of them when we look at Jesus.

• With Jesus we don’t shut our eyes to the badness of the badness. We don’t bury our heads in the sand and hope it magically disappears. When he invites us to follow him and we take him up on his invitation, we find ourselves engaging our world for good and battling the badness with joy.

• In the face of all the bad stuff, Jesus also teaches us that we can’t overcome it on our own. Our good intentions and best efforts aren’t enough to heal the deadly wounds of the world. We needed a savior and we have one.

Take some time today to reflect on how you tend to respond to the bad stuff. How might Jesus correct, redirect, or shape the way you tend to respond?