Providing Hope - A key goal of the Savior's life and Atonement

My good friend Dale sent me the following email, and I was so impressed with the message I wanted to post it here. Sorry if you didn't want me to Dale. I'll remove this post if you'd like. He heard this idea in one of the talks at church:

One of the talks in
church was on the hope that is in Jesus Christ. It was really good.
The brother did a really good job of isolating different instances in
the life of the Savior in which he provided hope to people. One that
stuck out to me is in Luke 23 when Christ is hanging on the cross
between the two thieves, he turns to one and says "Verily I say unto
thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." In that moment (a
moment of much doubt, worry, guilt, grief, etc) he gave that man peace
and hope. I've been thinking about why it is important to be a member
of our Church. More than that even, why do we not believe it is good
enough to live your own life [without a belief in the Savior]? There are a lot of people (some amongst my own
family) that think that living a good life is enough. And that is
great. For those who live high standards because they think it is the
right thing to do, I have a great respect. But what hope does that
bring them? Only through living His commandments and having that
faith in Christ that he died for us and lived his life for us can give
us that hope. I also think that hope is in more things than we can
comprehend. It is a hope of things that I probably have not even
thought of before. That because of the Atonement I will enjoy so many
blessings for eternity. Anyways, I hope I was able to make my point.

Two great ideas here:

1) Jesus tried/tries to provide hope to people. Probably the most famous other instance that comes to mind is the woman taken in adultery in John 8 (note that in the Joseph Smith Translation - not in our current version because it was of questionable authenticity in the late 70's but is not questioned now - the next verse says that she went away rejoicing; in other words, she was very hopeful after her interaction with Jesus)  

10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I^acondemn thee: go, and sin ^bno more.

I'm sure every healing (both spiritual healing - forgiveness from sins - and physical healing) provided great hope to those Jesus blessed.

Secondly, those who don't believe in a Savior likely have no concrete reason for hope. Many believe living a good life is enough, and frankly, they're right in some ways. Living a good life is enough to reach a very wonderful glorified place: the terrestrial kingdom. It will allow them to reach a better place than others. However, if you want to take advantage of the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, it's important to have a belief in him because that's what he requires, and he welcomes all to come unto him and believe. That actually seems fair. If you want to live life without a dependence on the Savior and a hope in him, that's fine. You'll still get a good reward if you're a good person. However, you won't have access to the full blessings of the Atonement: the chance to, with Christ's help, become an eternal family and live with Heavenly Father, you need to believe in him and follow him (i.e., live a good life). Why would those who don't come to Christ to receive his help get access to all of the blessings that those who do come to Christ, especially when all are welcome to "experiment on the word" and determine if Christ's message is true? 

Great thoughts Dale. Plus, going to church is great. You just might learn something tremendous from one of your fellow friends who's just trying to do the best they can.

LaDon