Finding Hope and Joy in a Time of Hopelessness and Despair

One of the great things about the Christmas season is the opportunity it provides for a personal and spiritual reset. Over the past year – in reality, nearly two years – we have bombarded with messages of gloom and doom, whether about the seemingly never-ending pandemic, mind-numbing political strife, economic downturns, heightening international conflict, or the ongoing war of ideologies and worldviews. Immersed in this atmosphere of seeming hopelessness and despair, it's time to revisit our greatest Source of hope and joy.

 

Recently, my wife and I were watching one of Hallmark’s ubiquitous Christmas movies, based on a book by David Baldacci – “The Christmas Train.” The film, I thought, is better than average. One of the lines in it stood out for me: “Hope begins when you stand in the dark looking out at the light.” 

 

Something very similar was written long before this book and film came out. We find it in the first chapter of the gospel of John, concerning the coming of Jesus Christ: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it” (John 1:4-5).

 

In studying the Scriptures, it’s always helpful to have context to understand what’s going on. In this case, the people of Israel had been without any new prophetic revelation for about 400 years, not since the divinely inspired words of the prophet Malachi. The Jews had clung to their hope in the promised Messiah, but four centuries is a long time to wait.

 

Suddenly, a man appeared to preach about the imminent arrival of the Messiah. Known as John the Baptist, we’re told, “He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world” (John 1:7-9).

 

Exciting news! After so many years of speculation and clinging to God’s covenant promises, there was a guy, John, declaring the Light of the world was about to initiate His earthly ministry. Strangely, however, not everyone got caught up in the excitement. In fact, cynics and skeptics far outnumbered the believers. The gospel goes on to say concerning Jesus, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (John 1:10-11).

 

There were no tickertape parades, welcome mats, not even a Welcome Wagon visit when Jesus arrived to set up shop. In fact, after all the hoping and waiting, there was great resistance and opposition. We’re familiar with John 3:16, the declaration that “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” However, not so often quoted is the sobering passage just a few verses later: 

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light…” (John 3:19-21).

 

So, the darkness we encounter that sometimes seems overwhelming shouldn’t surprise us. It was pervasive 2,000 years, and the brokenness and sinfulness of humankind is as acute today. If we concentrate on that, how can we not succumb to feelings of hopeless and despair? 

 

Which is why this season serves as such a wonderful reminder, a time for resetting. In this “season of lights,” we need to redirect our gaze, reorient our thinking, toward the One who declared, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

 

The revealing of the Good News of Jesus Christ started with a mysterious star, shining the way to Bethlehem. During His earthly life, Jesus brought light to countless people who had spent their lives stumbling and suffering in darkness. And through His Spirit, continues to offer His brilliant, unvanquishable light to everyone to receive it. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

Hopefully, you have responded to His light. Now’s as good a time as ever to walk in it, allowing the light of Jesus Christ to dispel the despair and hopelessness that desperately seeks to consume us. As the old Hank Williams song proclaims, “I saw the light, I saw the light, no more darkness, no more night…praise the Lord, I saw the light.”