Your life matters, and it matters on an infinite and eternal scale. That may sound like a bold claim.

Maybe you spend most of your day behind a desk or chauffeuring children or repeating one of a thousand ordinary routines. Nothing about your daily life seems world-changing or history-making to you. A life-crushing loss or a humiliating setback may leave you feeling that your world is irreparably broken. Chronic illness or a stalled career may have you wondering whether you have anything truly significant to offer. You may have reached the pinnacle of success, and now you find yourself wondering, "Is this all that there is?"

Nevertheless, your life matters. That is the core message of Christian hope. This book is devoted to helping its readers not only to understand the concept of hope, but more importantly to draw upon hope as the powerful force that inspires our daily lives.

Christian hope is far more than wishful thinking or a positive attitude. Optimism in all its forms places its bets on what we humans can accomplish. By contrast, hope is rooted in what Christ has already achieved on the cross and what God promises to accomplish for us in the future.

God connects the dots of our lives.