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Something that I find interesting in the times we live in: there seems to be a lot of despair in the world. People don’t seem to think things will get better. We seem fearful of anyone different from us. Hope seems in short supply.
I’m not talking about optimism, but hope. Optimism is the sense that things will turn out, that there will be a happy ending. Hope doesn’t guarantee things will be better at least in the short term, but there is a belief that bad things won’t last forever.
It’s not good to be low on optimism. It’s terrible to not have a happy ending. But it is even worse to not have any hope. To think the things that oppress us will always stay in power.
While I see this loss of hope a lot in our culture, it is found most intensely among Generation Z. And today, I’m talking to someone from that Generation about this loss of hope and what hope means for Christians. This what Gen Z Christian Jake Doberenz has to say about his generation:
“Especially in my own generation, but it’s across the board. A true pandemic with disastrous results. Despite all the promises of innovation that are supposed to make us happy… a lot of us are unhappy. We are fed lies, shown things we don’t have but want, and are increasingly isolated. And our access to the world means we more than ever are painfully aware that so much is bad.”
Jake Doberenz is my guest today. He is a writer, speaker, and entrepreneur passionate about helping Christians cultivate wholehearted devotion to Jesus. With both a Master’s in Theological Studies and a Bachelor's in Biblical Studies from Oklahoma Christian University, he blends biblical wisdom and humor to engage audiences in deeper faith conversations. He is the host of the Christianity Without Compromise podcast and writes at the Substack called Smashing Idols. We are going to talk about a recent article in Smashing Idols called “Having Hope In A Hopeless World.”
You can check out a video preview below.
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