That cliche only really works on pervs and people who are all about themselves. With the trend as of late pushing toward community and other-mindedness, sex won’t necessarily get you anywhere because everyone now understands that any half-naked girl is somebody’s daughter, and chances are, they’ll outwardly condemn any company that uses her to sell a product, such as a hamburger. What then do we use to get those unselfish people to bite so their attention, opinion and cash can be reeled in? We needed new ideas to push old products.
The latest and thus far greatest commodity is officially hope. Obama used it to get elected. Even people who really dislike the man have admitted that his campaign was founded on pure genius and built with the blood and tears of trendy graphic artist types. Who wouldn’t vote for hope? I know I would ( I had to write my hope in on the ballot though). Pepsi, being the better product 
of the two major cola companies and knowing how to ride in on somebody’s coattails immediately changed their logo and began pushing hope as well. When you’re a soda company and your ads don’t even show your product, people know that you care about them, right? The list of groups pushing this new, slightly intangible commodity might not be large, but the two that have done it certainly have caught peoples’ attention.
Hope and faith are like siblings; faith is older, and quite frankly, doesn’t need hope to subsist. Hope doesn’t need faith either, but is quite fond of it. We could also call faith belief, at least in this context. I strongly believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins; I’m putting my life in that. Hope though, is like a strong desire. I hope to be wealthy someday and marry a ridiculously good-looking woman. I hope she’s smart. I hope she’s not taller than me, because Lord knows, I don’t want to look up into my wife’s eyes to tell her I love her.
Hope might also be described as the fuel that drives our dreams. Faith can be said as knowing that those things for which we hope, will happen. I can continue to hope, even without faith. How many people don’t know Jesus and are still hoping they’ll earn their way into heaven? Too many, unfortunately.
I bought a Christmas album from one of my favorite bands the other day. It’s called “A Thrill of Hope” by Paper Route. I don’t like Christmas music; most of it is hokey sounding, and has terrible lyrics that really are more gimmick than anything else. This particular Christmas music is great, because it sounds like regular emo-ish rock, not like the twelve days of Christmas. The title though is what really caught me. A Thrill of Hope. Hope truly is thrilling, if you’ve ever gone without it.Everybody knows that, but I wonder how many people have truly had that experience. One of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen is the restoration of hope to a person who’s been out of it for a while. Big grins are common, tears aren’t unheard of, and motivation follows. Hope drives. It moves people where inaction has been the norm. Hope gets things done. Hope might even carry joy with it. Pepsi knows that; it has Joy billboards, too.
How do we get hope? I’m not sure. It probably varies from situation to situation. I would say then, just as you pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness, I would add hope to the list. Work toward it. Make it happen, and reap the benefits to that pursuit, too.
