When you acquired your first car, started a new job, or first fell in love, you had hope. It wasn’t just a car, but an expression of independence. It wasn’t just a job, but a better income or career. It wasn’t just about a person, but a loving, enduring relationship.

Yet hope can let you down. Let me take you back to 1971 during the Vietnam War, when John Lennon released the song “Imagine.” He imagined “all the people living for today.” He hoped away countries, religions, and possessions in order to usher in world peace and eliminate greed and hunger. It was one of the most popular songs of the twentieth century, but it produced nothing for which Lennon hoped. We still yearn for peace and human flourishing.

What’s the point of hope when it fails to produce the ideal? How do we make sense of it, when the idea of the thing is better than the thing itself, as happens so often? C. S. Lewis offers answers in Mere Christianity. He uses the examples of marriage, vacations, and learning. Even if the wife is pleasant, the hotels and scenery excellent, and the career in pharmacy interesting, “something has evaded us,” he writes.

He offers three possible responses. The “Fool’s Way” is to blame the thing. Get a new wife or try a more expensive trip and maybe you’ll catch this elusive sense of satisfaction that beckons you. The “Sensible Man” decides that such passions are the idealism of youth. He gives up on hope and just settles down to boredom.

The third response is the “Christian Way.” Humans are born with longings, some of which are fulfilled. But “if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy,” Lewis writes, “the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Your unrequited hopes point to something deeper, your true country, which you find by faith in Christ. Such is the meaning of hope.

“I go to prepare a place for you,” Jesus said, “and you know the way” (John 14).

Twin girls born in rural South Georgia during the depression years didn’t have many advantages. But someone took the words of Jesus seriously – and impacted generations.

The physician attending their home birth did not believe the tiny babies would survive. But they did, and at age 15 placed first in their high school graduating class. A librarian who was impressed with their potential and knew their circumstances suggested they apply to Berry College.

Martha Berry’s life spanned the years from the Civil War to WWII. Moved by the plight of children of poor landowners and tenant farmers, she began a Sunday school class on the family property near Rome, GA. That led to her opening first a boarding school for high school education, then Berry College. She offered the opportunity for students to work and earn their tuition, room, and board while receiving an education. She was not offering a handout but rather the dignity of serving others. They farmed, cleaned, and cooked for fellow students and staff.

Berry adopted the motto, “Not to be ministered unto but to minister.” This expression is taken from an exchange between Jesus and the sons of Zebedee. They wanted Him to make them privileged leaders. “You do not know what you’re asking,” He replied. “Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant.” That idea is at the core of the Christian gospel. “For even the Son of man (Jesus) came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:35-45, KJV). Berry understood that following Jesus means sacrifice and service to others.

In 1950, the teenaged twins took the Nancy Hanks train to Atlanta where they boarded a bus to Rome. Despite intense homesickness, they endured and earned college degrees. One of those girls is my mother. At Berry College, she met my father. With college degrees in hand, the newlyweds began their careers and later their family. Berry’s impact to their children and successive generations was not just to elevate their economic class. It was the legacy of service to others, as taught and modeled by our Savior.

Martha Berry never married. She dedicated her treasure, land, and life to serve others. It was a simple gesture when she sat down with a few poor kids to teach them Bible stories. She couldn’t have known how that one act of obedience would change not only their lives, but hers also.

Here is your takeaway. If you want to live a meaningful life and leave a generational legacy as a powerful rejoinder to our era’s unapologetic selfishness, then believe and follow Jesus. That means living by His words, “not to be ministered unto but to minister.”