Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Peter calls it a living hope — as if he wants to make sure you don't confuse it with the other kind, the wishful kind that dies when circumstances change. This hope, he says, exists specifically because of one event: Jesus rising from the dead.
That's an unusual foundation for hope. Most hope is built on things that could still fall apart — a plan working out, a relationship healing, health returning. Peter is pointing at something already settled, something in the past that he claims determines what's possible for the future.
If hope has mostly let you down before, it's worth noticing what kind Peter is describing here. Not optimism. Not positive thinking. A hope he says was caused — born again, in his words — by something that already happened and can't be undone.
If the hope you've known has always been fragile, it might be worth examining one that claims not to be.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.