Hope To Carry On

Hope To Carry On

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.

Romans 15:13

THERE’S A MOVIE PORTRAYING THE LIFE OF CHRIST, simply called the JESUS film. It’s been translated into all kinds of languages, and millions of copies have been distributed throughout the world. Paul Eshleman, one of the people responsible for that, tells about when the movie was shown at a refugee camp in Mozambique. Most of the people watching had never heard about Jesus. As they watched the film portraying his life, they fell in love with him. Then came the part when Jesus was arrested, beaten, and led away to be crucified. Everyone began to weep and wail, and many rushed toward the screen. Their cries and the dust they stirred up made it impossible to finish the film, so the projector was turned off. And for more than thirty minutes, the townspeople were on their knees weeping.

They had lost hope.

And our hearts need hope.

Paul Eshleman explains that eventually the JESUS film crew settled the people down and turned the movie back on so they could know the end of the story. Jesus’ story does not end in death on a cross, but in resurrection and new life. Jesus conquers death and walks out of the grave on the third day. And not only does he experience new life, he offers it to anyone who says yes.

When the townspeople saw how the story ended, the crowd exploded. They began cheering, jumping up and down, dancing, and hugging each other.

Nearly everyone made the decision to accept Jesus into their lives as the one who could take away their sins through the sacrifice he made. The following Sunday, five hundred new believers showed up at the church service offered for them.

When, as a nonbeliever examining Christianity, I first encountered the story of the Resurrection, I realized it was the critical piece my brain needed. I wanted to know if I could trust the message of the Bible, and this was the key historical incident I could use to prove it true or false. I soon learned there was all kinds of evidence proving the Resurrection actually happened, and I surrendered my life to Jesus. As someone who required proof, I am thankful God made a verifiable historical incident like the Resurrection the crux of our faith.^a

I later realized that the Resurrection was also the critical piece my heart needed. Our hearts need hope. We are desperate for it. People say hope is like oxygen for the soul. Many lose hope, and they’re suffocating without it.

As we look at this world, we despair at the condition it’s in. The crime, the hatred, the economy, the wars, the environment—all the problems.

And sometimes we look at our own lives, and we despair at the condition we’re in. The times we’ve screwed up, the relationships we’ve ruined, how little progress we seem to be making, the fact that someday we’re going to die.

And then something bad happens, and that’s when the despair really hits the fan. I think of when I got a phone call in the middle of the night from one of my best friends, Rich. His teenage daughter Megan had been in a car accident. She was dead. I raced over to the house and grieved with Rich and his wife, Karen.

About ten years later, I received another phone call. Rich had a brain tumor. The cancer was aggressive. He didn’t have much time. Last year Rich died.

I think of Karen. How do you lose your daughter and your husband and not lose your mind? How do you carry on? Is there any way to hold on to hope? Without it, would she just suffocate?

In Brennan Manning’s book Ruthless Trust, he tells the story of John Kavanaugh, a man who volunteered for three months with Mother Teresa’s ministry to the dying in Calcutta, India. He wanted to know how he should spend the rest of his life and hoped Mother Teresa could give him the answer.

When he met her, she asked, “What can I do for you?” Kavanaugh requested prayer. Mother Teresa asked, “What do you want me to pray for?”

This was what he came for, the moment he had waited for. He answered, “Pray that I have clarity.”

“No,” she said, “I will not do that.” He was confused and asked why. She replied, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.”

This wasn’t what Kavanaugh was hoping for. He countered that she always seemed to have the kind of clarity he was longing for. She laughed and said, “I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”

The question we all need to wrestle with is this: Are we hoping for something or are we hoping in someone?

If we’re hoping for something—the career we dream of, financial security, a perfect family—we’re sure to be disappointed.

But if we’re hoping in someone and that someone is Jesus, who loved us enough to go to the cross, and was strong enough to walk out of the grave, ultimately we’ll never be disappointed.

Rich’s daughter Megan died around midnight . . . on Easter Sunday. I was at his house till about four in the morning, then went home and rewrote my sermon to include Megan’s death in it. A few hours later I was standing in front of a room full of people explaining that yes, Megan had died, and the sadness felt overwhelming. But I also explained that we do “not grieve like people who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the believers who have died.”^b

Our hope, when we despair at the condition of the world or at the condition we’re in, or even when tragedy strikes, is certain, because our hope isn’t in something; it’s in someone.

That doesn’t mean we don’t get confused. We often live without clarity. But the one thing we can have is trust. We can trust in God. And he can give us the hope our hearts hunger for, the hope we need to carry on.

Now What?

• Read 1 Peter 1:3-9.
• That passage tells us we can live with hope. We get so caught up in the things of this world and so depressed by our problems, but it’s all temporary, and we have the certainty of a better future in heaven. A pastor once tried to help his kids learn this lesson by having them stamp the word “temporary” on all of their belongings. You might not want to literally stamp your stuff, but why not mentally stamp “temporary” on all your belongings and on all your problems today?
• Prayer can be used to repent. To repent means to change your mind and your direction. Ask God to show you what you’ve been putting your hope in. One way to detect it is by filling in the blank: “I would be happy if .” What do you think you need? Whatever it is, pray and repent. Ask God to help you change your mind and become sure that the only thing you really need is him.