A Man Called Hope

“Obama can save us,” begins the headline of one of the many stories about the hope that people are placing on the soon-to-be-president.

If the adulation given Mr. Obama during the campaign approached the messianic, the current atmosphere carries traces of the Second Coming. I guess he himself started the trend – with the waters receding and the planet beginning to heal and all – but campaign rhetoric has turned into almost literal hosannas.

This is neither fair nor healthy. No man can possibly live up to the hopes being placed on Mr. Obama, and we shouldn’t hold him to it. He is a mere mortal, and he’s going to have his successes and failures, and eventually his fans (there really is no other word) will surely be disappointed.

And that’s the other problem – people putting such hopes on a man will have their hopes dashed. If the economy doesn’t spring back to life overnight, if mortgages don’t suddenly disappear, if our enemies don’t suddenly beat their RPGs into plows, the world will continue to turn, but some people are going to be terribly sad.

We can certainly hope for the best out of the next four years, but we must be realistic, and we should encourage our neighbors to be so as well. The cure for the world’s problems is not the Obama presidency. It is Christ.

Only Christ can change hearts, and that is what it will take to turn many of our enemies into friends. Only the real Second Coming will put an end to disease, war, and pestilence. Only the Day of the Lord will see the end of hate, fear, and pain.

By all means we should pray for the new president and try to work together to improve this nation and this world, but let’s not misplace our hope. The hope to which we have been called is far greater than any man.