We worry. We worry all the time about messing up, about what might happen.

I was in a conversation the other day talking about not giving people false hope, because I know how stories turn out. I know that the odds of death in this illness are great. And I don’t want people to get their hopes up and then be devastated.

But I realized the other day that sometimes I give people false fear. I distract, I lower expectations. And that’s not helpful either.

Because both false hope and false fear are focusing on the physical outcome of the particular illness. They are not focusing on life. On how to live well. On how to rest in relationship with God.

For those of us who follow Jesus, rather than false hope and false fear, what if we stuck with God’s hope?

Not a hope that this illness will go well, that this test will turn out well, that my boss doesn’t get mad.

A hope that knows that God is good and God’s kingdom is good and God’s kingdom extends beyond what we can see now.

Not so much a dependence on events but on God. Not so much dependence on prayer but on God.

Paul talked about this. As we read earlier,

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.