The Hope Effect
I’ve recently been struggling with what the doctor tells me is Athlete’s Foot. You know, at this point of my life, I am glad to be associated with the word athlete no matter how uncomfortable it may be.
So I’ve been using this over the counter stuff and it works, but when I stop using it, the Athlete's Foot immediately returns. So, I went back to my doctor and told him, “You know, I need something more powerful to kick this thing. I'd like to completely get rid of it.”
He said, "Ok, I’m going to give you the most powerful drug on the market."
After I got the prescription filled, I read the little paper that came with it. It contained a list of all of the weird things this drug might do to those who administer it.
There, I also found the results of a controlled study. Sixty percent of the people found the drug effective. Of course, in a controlled study, there are those who are given a placebo, instead. Forty-four percent of those who took the placebo also found it effective.
I was amazed to read that forty-four percent of the time the placebo did the job. That’s almost as good as the actual medication! As I considered those numbers, I thought to myself, that is an illustration of the power of hope!
When we expect something to help us, it is incredible how helpful that can be all by itself. Hope, even an empty hope, can change our lives for the better.
Perhaps, the next time I see my doctor, I should tell him, “Listen, just give me a prescription for the placebo. It’s cheaper and it’s almost as effective!”
Of course, the problem with this idea is that once we are aware that we are taking a placebo, it doesn't work! Right? The Placebo Effect requires a genuine belief. The medicine doesn't have to be genuine but the hope does. Without a sincere belief, there is no Placebo Effect.
This tells us that the Placebo Effect is really the Hope Effect. And if hope is powerful without anything behind it, think of how much more powerful it will be when the words of God are behind it!
"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Isaiah 40:31).
Scientists Discover Whole-Body Regeneration Switch
Harvard Scientists have discovered a DNA power switch that controls genes for regeneration, with the potential to adjust the range of regeneration. It is hoped that the discovery will one day lead to the ability to regrow limbs, like the salamander, or mimic the jellyfish's ability to regenerate their entire bodies after being cut in half.
But it's Christians who should be most excited by this discovery, for we know the One whose hand is on the switch. After all, God wrote the code!!
What makes this a double discovery is that it was found among what scientists call "Junk DNA," DNA that was allegedly left lying around by Evolution, with no real purpose. What an incredible treasure to find amongst the so-called "junk!" Finds like these demonstrate that there really is no such thing as "Junk DNA," just junk science!
Rather, there is a purpose behind all of the code our Creator has written into our DNA. Just because we have yet to discover its purpose doesn't mean that it has no purpose. It just means there's a lot we don't know.
But there is no excuse for ignorance when it comes to regeneration. The Scriptures inform us that it is God's intent to one day make full use of that whole-body regeneration switch!
When Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die," wasn't He also saying, "Don't worry, the code for whole-body regeneration is real and I know that code!"?
No Better Hope Than Heaven
It's called "extreme embalming"--posing the deceased, not in a casket, but sitting or standing up, with the appropriate supports of course. It might be the body of an 18-year-old young man, slumped in an office chair with a PS4 controller in his hand, as if he were playing his favorite game NBA2K--with favorite snacks at hand. Or, a boxer propped up at the far end of a makeshift ring, in his robe and gloves. Or a Southern belle socialite, sitting on a bench in designer clothes, with a feather boa, her hand cradling a champagne flute.
This is how their families wanted to remember them; frozen in a fond memory.
When we lose a heavenly focus, it's natural to cling to the experiences of this life. We look back instead forward. We choose denial of the reality of death over hope in the reality of heaven.
However, if we believe in Jesus who is the Resurrection and the LIfe, and trust Him to pay for the sin which condemns us to mortality, then we can look forward with confidence to something far better than a posed funeral service--to an eternity too wonderful to even imagine!
"But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).