The power of hope

Happy New Year, everyone!  My plan was to post this blog on New Year’s Day – or even New Year’s Eve – but as per usual, life took over.  So without further delay, let’s dive right in.

I’ve been thinking about a memorable episode from the TV show “Lois and Clark” starring Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain.  In the fourth season of the series, Howie Mandel guest starred as an imp from another dimension named Mr. Mxyzptlk (Mandel pronounced it “Mix-yez-pit-lick”).  Incidentally, Howie Mandel, the “Deal or No deal” host, was so good in this role.

While one may have trouble with this character’s name, his plan was diabolical.  He planned to eliminate hope by placing the entire world in a time loop.  In a storyline similar to the film “Groundhog Day” after several hours, time itself reverted back to 12 noon.  But in an intriguing twist, whenever it did loop back, humanity lost a little bit more of its hope.  Mxyzyptlk himself put it this way: “Superman is the symbol of hope.  If you take away hope, he’s the symbol of nothing.  In a world without hope, he’s powerless.  Take away tomorrow means there’s no hope for tomorrow.”

It was fascinating to see the decline of hope as the time loop persisted.  Humanity was losing hope.  Many were growing despondent, angry, and in some cases suicidal.  And so Mxyzyptlk showed up and presented Superman with an offer.  In a pivotal scene, the imp says if Superman will leave Earth forever, he will remove the loop.  The Man of Steel refuses to leave, and asserts that there is always hope.  

This powerful moment actually releases Lois from the time loop.  “I could feel you rejecting hopelessness,” she says to him.  “It hit me like a wave.”  The two of them work together to restore hope to humanity, and they subsequently trick Mxyzyptlk to say his name backwards, which banishes him back to his dimension.  I love the episode because it illustrates an important principle: the power of hope.  And how devastating it is when one doesn’t have it.

2020 was a tough year.  It’s a year that I will never forget, and neither will you.  There were challenges in it that no one would have predicted.  But, even still, I have hope in my heart.  Not because we have concluded 2020 (after all, 2021 will have its challenges as well).  I have hope because the God of the universe is holding my hand, and He won’t let me go.  He is in absolute control.  Like Superman in that episode, God will never leave me or forsake me.  He will fight for me, even when I can’t fight for myself (to quote Riley Clemmons and her song, “Fighting for me”)

In conclusion, Romans 15:13 is a verse that God has riveted on my heart; it says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Amen and amen!

Kevin