(I wrote this during the Spring of 2002 for a college entrance application)
Life without hope in a dull, frustrating world congeals the stuff of human existence...almost. To some, born-lived-died is more than the plot of too many bad novels; it dooms them, chaining their lives to a Maslowian fate. Others drown the raw truth in unrelenting labor, raucous revelry, sunlit spring breezes, cigarettes at noontime, or the bottle. Yet some find hope in this droll, frustrating world, but they will not agree and cannot be sure of that hope. Or can they?
Once I could not find hope. I still can't. That's why I leaped for joy when it found me instead. Somehow, by the Grace of God, I find myself with the only, single true hope, a nonsensical faith, a belief I cannot prove with mortal things, a book that turns a hopeless, droll, frustrating world into a beautiful, hopeful, droll, frustrating world where smallest intricacies and biggest setbacks bring joy alike.
Did I say my faith makes no sense? I was right. No sane person in his wrong mind would agree to a divine Creator, Revealer, Saviour, Lord, and Friend. Unfortunately, human depravity ensures sane human wrong-mindedness.
Once one obtains this hope, the difficulty of Christianity shifts from the foolishness of believing myths to the stupidity of doing what they say. This is my challenge, for God has revealed His will plainly and has promised to help His adopted children understand His Word, the Bible. Once a person agrees to accept the entire Bible as God presents it in the Bible, the test of faith (or mere hope) comes. A mere hoper won't bother (or dare) to keep exactly what God says; a person with true faith will not only try but succeed when he does.
Because I have faith in Christ, have escaped the corruption that is in the world, am a partaker of the Divine Nature, and have received many great and precious promises from God Himself, my goal in life is to be diligent in my service of righteousness to God. The society we live in, like any that has seen the noonday sun since the day God spoke it into existence, is utterly depraved, and I am too. It is God himself in my life who works anything in my life that may seem to be faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and charity. Yet there is a war in my life, a war I am very grateful for yet very weary of. Its existence is an indication of the Spirit in my life, but it is also a painful reminder of my lingering depravity. Yet I toil on, knowing that the riches of Christ are greater than anything this world has to offer.
This foolish faith through which I cling to my Divine Creator, Revealer, Saviour, Lord, and Friend, overwhelmingly dwarfs any of my other life influences. My foolishness makes me live differently than I would naturally live. It makes me chuckle when called names, for my goal is simply to exercise Faith in God with my mind and feet. And if I can show a doomed, droll, frustrated world a Divine Creator, Revealer, Saviour, Lord, and Friend, the more the merrier.
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.