Heavenly vs Worldly Hope: Lessons from C.S. Lewis

In my sermon this past Sunday, I borrowed a quote from Book III, Chapter 10 of C.S. Lewis’s masterpiece, Mere Christianity. This specific part of the book is one that deals directly with the Christian virtue we call hope. Lewis’s goal in this chapter was to compare hope – namely, hope in Heaven – to that of hope on earth. The two are similar yet can be confused in initiative. This is to say that often, the hopes that we hold onto in this world – peace, joy, contentment, satisfaction, etc. – are really things that we won’t entirely experience until we are Home in Heaven.
Now, this isn’t to say that we can enjoy these things now (or in Lewis’s words – that we can’t find hope in them). We should, and we must. But we should be aware that our senses are only designed to be aroused by things that will never be fully understood until we are in Heaven. This, in Lewis’s mind, is the essence of hope. Hence the quote I used in my sermon: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Here’s the warning that Lewis goes on to explain: Some people will vainly seek hope in the things of the world. They will use pleasure, entertainment, power, money, etc. to give them a false sense of hope. Others will seek hope in themselves. They will try to control everything around them to make them feel hopeful. The problem with these two pursuits is that they disappoint. They cannot provide hope because they cannot last. They perish with the use and are limited in design, forever hardwired by a dying, decaying world.
But there is a third option for hope: Heaven. Lewis argues that many miss this option simply because they are too immersed in this world to consider the one to come; and if they do give Heaven any consideration, he says, it’s usually only in a superficial, superfluous way e.g. people simply want to see loved ones when they die, they want a mansion, etc. These “hopes” are deceitful because they are still rooted in this world. They fail to pierce the veil that exists between this world and the one to come.
For the Christian, then, hope in Heaven means they understand that the things of this world are simply metaphors, symbols, and antitypes of things to come; that desires, satisfaction, joy, etc. (all things that we can enjoy now) are simply meant to arouse an appetite for the real thing to come when we pass on the Glory, not become the “meal” itself. Thus, when we experience these things, we don’t find hope in them necessarily, we find hope in the fact that there is coming a time when all our desires, satisfactions, etc. will be fulfilled when we see Christ face to face.
Hope is knowing that the affairs of this world are simply experiences that prepare you for the next. They are not meant to anchor you to this life but to set you free in the one to come – the one filled the endless potential that Christ has afforded you in Heaven. When you consider this reflection of hope, your perspective changes from a temporary hope to an everlasting one.

Blessings,
Bro. Ben