Misery, scars, depression, despair, brokenness – these make up our world. People strangling their own screams for help. Damaged beyond repair, they turn and silence the cries for help of others. Blind people leading blind people. The world is full of desolation. In a room full of friends, their laughing faces conceal a black gaping hole of despair that has consumed their lives. The quiet ones as well as the loud ones suffer the same. Abuse, pain, fear, distrust – this is reality. Despair has no preference.
Despair. It is a hopelessness that reaches the very soul. It petrifies and freezes those who might have a chance at life. It makes life devoid of good. Nothing can free. The abandonment of hope is the abandonment of life. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. No one cares. I am alone.
lies
Allow that word to marinate in your brain and heart. Lies - an untruth that people allow themselves to believe. LIES. A false statement that is deliberately used to deceive others or one’s self. Despair is a lie that whispers that there no hope. False. Hope is living and healthy. According to George Bernard Shaw, “He who has never hoped can never despair.” Therefore, one who is despairing did at one time have hope. Consequently, hope is achievable. Hope is the belief that what is wanted can be had.
In the morning with the sunshine, hope arrives. Many people believe that night has no hope. Generally, dawn is considered as the arrival of hope. Yet, in the dark of night, there are stars. These specks of light hold promise of the morning to come. The moon personifies the patient, enduring hope within one’s heart. There is hope.
The reality of this world is sobering. Nothing within this world is enduring enough to be confident of it persisting long enough for hope to be placed in it. This entire world is fickle. It is slippery. One’s fingers cannot grasp onto anything that persists. Nothing is concrete. Hope that will never be disappointed cannot be found in this world. That is a sure way to despair.
Real hope is found in things not of this world. Yet, things not of this world are unexplainable. These do not fit the logical part of one’s brain. Hope is God. God is hope. Both the idea of God and Hope are abstract concepts. Without hope, life would be hell. Without God, there would be no hope. Concrete hope is found in God for “those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength” so says Isaiah 40:31. Hope is not tangible. Yet, it greatly influences the human population. Likewise, God is not often tangible, but He continues to influence the human culture. God is Hope.
“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.” –Martin Luther King, jr.
