What Do You Hope In?

Yesterday at church, the sermon was from Hebrews 7:1-19. During the service, I was have some horrible and strange feelings. I was attributing them to spiritual causes, but upon reflection, and after another episode, I began to wonder whether or not they were a side effect of a new medication. Anyway, they got my attention. The subject of the sermon was one of those that can leave you scratching your head and wondering how to apply it. The preacher's application hit me right between the eyes. Hebrews 7:19 talks about a "better hope." The preacher made a distinction between "linear" hope, and "vertical" hope. Vertical hope, of course, is hoping in Jesus, which is the better hope. Linear hope is in the things we hope in in this life. The preacher listed better job, better finances, better health, and things like that. Of course, his list described me. Those are the things I've been struggling with, and hoping in, apparently. And who wouldn't want things to get better? But the point is, they shouldn't be our hope. So, I accepted the Lord's verdict and repented. And immediately, those horrible and strange feelings I'd been having disappeared, which was why I was tempted to ascribe them to spiritual causes (I haven't completely decided what the cause was). It has been interesting to reflect on what some of my neighbors hope in. Some of them have taken to "stealing" parking spaces from me as soon as I vacate them. Sometimes they will get out of bed very early (though they like to sleep in), move their car/van to the spot I just left, and go right back into the apartment. How do I know that's what they do? The tracks in the snow are very telling. These are the same people who already harass me in other ways. I might not notice too, much, except that the parking lot has become crowded with extraneous cars, and sometimes it's very hard to find a place to park. So these folks seem to live for (hope in) opportunities to get "one up" on somebody else. In a way, it's rather humorous, and in another way it's extremely sad. They obviously have nothing to live for, no purpose in life, and they need the Lord.