[This reflection by David Makanjuola was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 31/May/2026]
You wake up in the morning to what I will call another ‘typical’ day. If you live in the UK, ‘typical’ would include looking at social media feeds, the news on television, or reading the newspapers, and this will often, very quickly, bombard you with things to make you feel despondent, sad, and sometimes angry at the state of things in the world.
Coupled with this is the very real anxiety about what the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) will be. It is already having a significant impact on jobs in certain sectors, and perhaps even more frightening is the thought that some of the people at the forefront of developing it are motivated by self interest and questionable ethical principles.
I was discussing about this with my daughter last weekend, and it became clear to me that the difference between thriving, or giving in to despair in the face of all that is happening, is down to whether or not one has hope.
John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford and Christian apologist, was debating with an atheist Professor of Chemistry about God. Towards the end of the debate, John Lennox asked the atheist Professor if he had any hope for after he dies, to which the answer was ‘no’. He said he had nothing to hope for, because as far as he was concerned, there was nothing to hope for after we die.
The Christian believes that there is something to hope for and that makes a huge difference.
It is very important to know who that hope is in. It needs to be something bigger than you, bigger than any other human being, because if you place it in material things, or people, you will be let down. We need to place that hope in God.
In his article for Yours last week, Dennis talked about Jesus telling the disciples to lift their eyes. I would like to echo that challenge to us. When the dark clouds gather, let’s lift our eyes to look for the silver linings, reminders that no matter how bleak things may seem, when we put our hope in God, weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning.
So, after you’ve listened to the news, scrolled through social media, or read the papers, pause for a while and be thankful that you have a God who, as the song says, ‘has got the whole world in his hands’, a God who is slow to anger, quick to forgive, and promises to be with you always.
That’s someone you can safely hope in.
Resources:
[1]
Bible quotations: Unless otherwise specified, quotations are taken from the resources of Bible Gateway or Bible Hub, in accordance with the licencing conditions outlined on our Site Policies page.
Bible dates:
Where appropriate, the dates given for Biblical events are based on the Bible Timeline resource
and are subject to the constraints defined on the corresponding webpage.
Horley Baptist Church onlineHBC main site
Confidential prayer link
Link to Recent Reflections
.
Link to Index of Bible Passages
Last Sunday’s reflection: Spreading The Good News by Dennis Ginter
Contributed by David Makanjuola; © David Makanjuola