DEVOTION//Jonas Salk was wrong
Jonas Salk was a global hero. He led a team of virologists who developed a vaccine against polio.
Salk was right about polio
When the Salk vaccine was made available in 1955, the polio pandemic and its threat of death and paralysis quickly faded into history.
Salk was wrong about hope
Although Salk was a brilliant virologist, he was wrong about hope. "Hope, "Salk said, "lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality."
The Bible provides us with another source for hope. A better source for hope. A source that is available to us no matter how small our dreams and imagination or how meager our courage to turn those dreams into reality.
God is right about hope
The hope that God provides has foundations in the immovable bedrock of his love for us. As long as God loves us, his Word says, we have hope. And here's the wonderful news: God always loves us. Always.
"[God's] hope will not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. For at the appointed time, while we were still helpless, Christ died for the ungodly…. God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:5,6,8).
Real hope is founded on God’s love
How do we know that God always loves us? "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." And since it is a fact of history that Jesus died -- and rose again from the dead -- for us, "[God's] hope will not put us to shame." It will never disappoint us. It will never fail us. It will never leave us hanging.
No matter the situation. No matter the apparent evidence to the contrary. No matter what our emotions are telling us. We have hope.
We have real hope. Hope that is accessible by every believer -- no matter how immoral, how godless, how lost they have been. God sent his Son to forgive ungodly people. Consequently, he gives hope to those forgiven ungodly people. We know because in Jesus he has shown how much he loves us.