Where to Find Hope

There is always light in the darkness, but mostly it’s a little light . . . enough light for the next step, but not for the entire journey. And when it gets dark enough, even a little light will do.

I recently bought a new Honda Accord Hybrid. My old Accord had over 100,000 miles, and I faced major repairs. When I went shopping for a new car, I remembered what Ralph Richardson said about car shopping. Ralph was the part-time janitor at the little church I served on Cape Cod at the beginning of our ministry, the owner of a print company, and worked for a wealthy man who lived in East Dennis. Ralph also had an earthy wisdom. I often think of him and the things he taught me during that time.

I mentioned this wealthy man, and Ralph said, “I sometimes feel really sorry for him.” When I asked him why, Ralph said, “He can never know the joy of shopping for a new car because he has everything he wants whenever he wants it. For a month, I’ve been thinking about buying a new car. I’ve checked out the cars I can afford and, next week, I’ll buy the one I’ve chosen. My friend will never know how much fun I’ve had in the anticipation of buying the new car.”

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 (the famous love passage) that only three things would last—faith, hope, and love. As I was thinking about hope, the first thing that dawned on me was that hope doesn’t exist except in the context of deprivation. Hope is irrelevant if you already own it (whatever it is). For instance, Christians don’t hope God will love and forgive them. They are already loved and forgiven. Hope has nothing to do with it. But Christians do have hope for “things to work out in the end.” We hope that justice will be done, we will get home before the dark, for a new and better world to come, and Jesus will return and set things right. That’s what the writer of Hebrews meant, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

What we believe is crazy. Most of us have been Christians for so long, have so many Christian friends, and participate in so many Christian events that we forget how really crazy what we believe to be true is. Sometimes, it sounds like a novel (a poor one) that every reader knows is fiction. It starts with the existence of God. That’s reasonable because only fools, the psalmist says, believe there isn’t a God. But then it goes south. We believe that the sovereign creator, ruler, and sustainer of the universe became a human being who got colds, was tired, and was sometimes even afraid. If that isn’t bad enough, we believe that, after he died and assumed room temperature, that dead man got out of his grave and, even in bodily form, walked through closed doors and appeared in surprising places. And it gets worse. That same God/Man ascended in a cloud, promising to come back to clean up the mess human beings created. Then, to top it off, we say gross things about Christ’s blood covering all our sins.

It should be no surprise when unbelievers think (and sometimes say), “If you believe that, you’ll believe anything.” But we do believe it. The operative words in that verse from Hebrews are “assurance” and “conviction.” Where in the world do we find assurance and conviction when, in fact, we have not seen anything to affirm it? At least to unbelievers, it does seem that what we believe isn’t rational, and we have lost our minds.

That brings me to something else. Not only is hope seen only in deprivation, but hope is also self-affirming. Hope itself is a reason for hope. The restless heart for God, to which Augustine referred, is the reason for hoping for rest in him. That one is hungry and thirsty may not prove there is food and water, but it’s a pretty good indication there is.

Fred Smith once talked to an angry businessman and had a revelation of sorts. Fred told him, “I just realized you’re not angry; you’re hungry.” Fred told him about Christ, and it changed his life. What Fred saw in the man’s spiritual hunger was the key to a reality. If you’re hungry, search for food, and it’s a good bet you’ll find it. The hunger is the clue. People who aren’t hungry can safely go grocery shopping and not be bothered by food. Those who are hungry buy whatever (and all) they can grab. Their hunger (i.e., hope) brought them to hope’s fulfillment.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that we can’t picture the wonderful things God has prepared for his people, even in our wildest imaginations. I believe that, and I certainly didn’t make it up. Who, in their right mind, would dream up something like that when all we experience suggests the opposite? I simply don’t have any rational reason for hope except the hope itself. That’s enough.

Well, that’s not exactly true. There is something else. Hope has its reasons, and they are more than just heart reasons. Let me give you a biblical truth. There is always light in the darkness, but mostly it’s a little light . . . enough light for the next step, but not for the entire journey. And when it gets dark enough, even a little light will do.

John said, “We are God’s children now [the little light], and what we will be has not yet appeared [the journey isn’t complete yet]; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). In other words, we know we will be like him because he has given us enough light to keep on trucking.

I’m still here. I’m sometimes bloodied, and that should cause me to run. I’m sometimes so sinful I think I can’t be good enough to be here. I sometimes have doubts that would cause some to leave. I’m sometimes afraid and lonely, making me think I’m crazy for doing this. But I’m still here. Do you know why? Because Jesus (and it’s sometimes irritating) has brought me this far, and I can’t get out of it. 

As a young man in ministry, I served a wonderful church for almost 20 years. During that time, I lost most of my hair (and any hair I had left had turned white) and developed wrinkles-on-wrinkles. “You did this to me,” I sometimes told the congregation. “I didn’t look this way when I first came here. It’s your fault.” It was a joke, but it isn’t a joke when I say to Jesus, “You did this to me. It’s your fault.”

As a matter of fact, the most rational worldview (maybe the only one that makes sense) is the Christian faith. Everything else leads to hopelessness and meaninglessness. If our hope isn’t true, we are turnips that will only live for a while, then die and be buried, providing fertilizer for other turnips. Camus said that because that is the alternative, the only question a rational person asks is whether or not to commit suicide.

Not only are there rational reasons for hope, but there are also existential “memorials” (places where God has clearly and astonishingly acted in our lives) so we can remember, even in the dark, a reason for the hope we have. I just can’t run from a God who clearly and lovingly manifested himself to me. You, too!

In the 18th-century English poet John Keats’ poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” a girl and a boy reach out to kiss each other . . . but never quite make it. Keats wrote, “Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss.” And you may remember the words of that great philosopher (and singer), Peggy Lee, who, at the end of her life, after all she had encountered, asked, “Is that all there is?” That’s so sad I can hardly stand it.

When I served on a committee with my late friends, R.C. Sproul and James Montgomery Boice, I noticed they both drove a Mercedes while I, obviously the more spiritual of the three of us, drove a Honda. When I made a joke out of it, R.C. responded with a smile, “We work for a first-class God. Who do you work for . . . Buddha?”

Good point, that!

I’m now driving a new Honda Accord and love it. God told me he would put a big dent in it if I didn’t get over my pride in the new car within three weeks. As I write this, I’m within those three weeks. So, my hope was realized, and I’m quite pleased with my new car. Someday, my other hopes, which are far more important, will be realized, too. 

You can hang your hat on that.

Peter wrote, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you . . .”  (1 Peter 3:15).

Cheer up. There are a lot of reasons for our hope.

He asked me to remind you.