My own journey of hopelessness began when I was 15. As much as I wanted to believe in God, I could not.
I could relate to Tolstoy who recounts an
"old Eastern fable about a traveler who was taken by surprise in the steppes by a raging wild beast. Trying to save himself from the beast, the traveler jumps into a dried-up well; but at the bottom of the well he sees a dragon with its jaws open wide, waiting to devour him. The unhappy man does not dare climb out for fear of being killed by the wild beast, and he does not dare jump to the bottom of the well for fear of being devoured by the dragon. So he grabs hold of a branch of a wild bush growing in the crevices of the well and clings to it. His arms grow weak, and he feels that soon he must fall prey to the death that awaits him on either side. Yet he still holds on, and while he is clinging to the branch he looks up to see two mice, one black and one white, evenly working their way around the branch of the bush he is hanging from, gnawing on it. Soon the bush will give way and break off, and he will fall into the jaws of the dragon." Leo Tolstoy Confession page 30 (http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/confessions-tolstoy.pdf)
As he thought about his life and the inevitability of death, he was filled with despair. This was how I felt as a young man also.
In fact, when God is not part of the picture, the reasons for hopelessness are many.
As Roxanne Gay explains in her piece for the New York Times entitled "The Case Against Hope." (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/06/opinion/hope-politics-2019.html) In her article she says, "I don’t traffic in hope. Realism is more my ministry than is unbridled optimism. Hope is too ineffable and far too elusive."
Hopelessness was engulfing me as I came of age. And yet, like Tolstoy, Jesus, by his grace, shined into my darkness and showed me that he was real and life had meaning.
When we turn to Luke's gospel account of Christmas, we encounter the hopelessness of Elizabeth. Elizabeth would have said, "We are doing everything right, yet none of our hopes are being fulfilled."
Indeed, according to the Bible, the God of hope, allows his beloved people to languish, suffer and experience hardship, disappointment and loss.
But he also reserves the right to break in at the least expected time and turn things around.
Luke 1
“And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
We find hope by looking backwards – in history we see God showing up in unexpected ways in the incarnation and in the shocking pregnancy of Elizabeth.
We find hope by looking inward – in the gospel we have this promise that Christ dwells in us the hope of Glory.
We find hope by looking forward – in the resurrection we see a foretaste of the New Heavens and New Earth.
Consider these verses on hope.
Romans 8:18-24 NLT Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[j] including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved.
Romans 15
12 Isaiah said,
“The heir to David’s throne[f] will come,
and he will rule over the Gentiles.
They will place their hope on him.”[g]
13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
1 Peter 1:13 So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.
1 Peter 1:21 Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.
Colossians 1:27 the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Matthew 12 He healed all the sick among them, 16 but he warned them not to reveal who he was. 17 This fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah concerning him:
18 “Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen.
He is my Beloved, who pleases me.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
19 He will not fight or shout
or raise his voice in public.
20 He will not crush the weakest reed
or put out a flickering candle.
Finally he will cause justice to be victorious.
21 And his name will be the hope
of all the world.”
Quoting Isaiah 42
You can see from these verses that God is a God of hope and that the messiah was sent to be our hope. As author Jackie Jarawan has written in her Blog from January 4, 2015.
"Honestly though, hope has been far away at times this year. I have struggled with depression. Disappointment. Discouragement. Fatigue. Weariness in the battle. Even frustration …Hope does not lie in circumstances and emotions. It cannot…. like a river with all its twists and turns and rapids and calm, circumstances and emotions are always changing…. nothing is permanent. I must find the permanent, the forever, the eternal...... and rest there…. Hope is not an emotion. It is not a circumstance that works out…. Hope is a Person who comes to me. Hope walks across the water, climbs in my boat, fastens my life vest and says "Hold on. Keep looking at me, no matter how fast this boat spins or how high the waves rise. I am here. I will not leave. You can trust me. You are safe with me."
Hope reaches through the storm, and takes my face in His hands. He nods knowingly at my humanity. He aches with my ache, but prompts my heart to remember that it is finished because He finished it. He reigns over my circumstances, inviting me to look for his hand in the mystery and the change. He reigns over my emotions
He is my real, unshakeable Hope."
Jackie is expressing the same hope that animates Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Frodo says, "I can't do this, Sam."
And Sam replies,
"I know.
It's all wrong
By rights we shouldn't even be here.
But we are.
It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo.
The ones that really mattered.
Full of darkness and danger they were,
and sometimes you didn't want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy.
How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened.
But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow.
Even darkness must pass.
A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you.
That meant something.
Even if you were too small to understand why.
But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.
I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t.
Because they were holding on to something."
Frodo responds, "What are we holding on to, Sam?
And Sam replies, "That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for."
No matter what you are facing in your life, as a believer in Jesus, you can look backwards in history at the reality of the incarnation and find hope. You can look inward at the work of the Holy Spirit to give you hope because of your ongoing sanctification. And you can look forward in hope to the day God will make all things new.
Lord we ask in your mercy that you help us put our hope in you. Be our rock of stability amidst the chaos and uncertainty of the world. We pray these things in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen!
