The One Certainty We Never Want to Talk About

I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty weary of all the non-stop, 24/7 COVID-19 virus reporting and commentary. Yes, it’s a serious issue. And yes, we all need to take necessary precautions. Those who don’t are endangering both themselves and others. Yes, this is not the time to cast all care to the winds. Maybe we’ll never have that kind of “time” again. So, wear a mask when in crowds, keep your distance, repress the urge to shake hands and hug, keep washing and sanitizing your hands regardless, and try to refrain from touching your face – no matter how lovely or handsome it happens to be.

But I can see the other side, too. Folks who, just as soon as restrictions began to be lifted, couldn’t wait to hop in the car, head to the mall, go to the beach, stroll through the park, or resume whatever favorite activities they’ve been denied. We’re all worn out byf the incessant gloom and doom, and have grown increasingly eager to recapture some brightness and hope. As the Scriptures affirm, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12).

By now, even those most stable emotionally have nearly succumbed to the drumbeat of death tallies and less-than-optimistic projections for the future. Warding off a dreaded virus isn’t the way we desire to spend the immediate future, let alone the rest of our lives.

It seems, however, there’s an issue in play far greater than enduring the inconveniences of not being free to go here and there, doing this and that, as we were so accustomed. The daily statistics serve as a dismal reminder of a certainty: Death. They used to say, “The only things certain in life are death and taxes.” Well, even taxes have been postponed for the time being, if you haven’t yet filed your income tax return for last year. But death, it’s right there, staring us in the face. And if we forget, the grim news anchors and reporters on ABC, CBS, NBC, and cable news outlets seem to take a perverse delight in providing us with reminders.

Deep down we know the truth. Our days are numbered. One day, ready or not, we’re going to pass from this life. But not today, right? Or tomorrow, either. Or next week, or next month, or next year, if you don’t mind. As actor/director Woody Allen once said, “I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” We all can relate.

Not to add to the morbidity of these days, but this raises an even more profound issue. It comes down to a matter of faith – and where your faith happens to be. If you lack faith, trusting only in luck, karma, good fortune, serendipity or something similar, it’s hard to face each new day. With every tomorrow seeming more tenuous than ever, it’s easy to succumb to panic, despair, fear, or other unproductive emotions. How can one find peace amid such chaos?

That doesn’t mean those of us who find hope and assurance from the teachings of the Bible are exempt from anxiety and stress. Faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t mitigate the fact that we’re flesh and blood, with adrenaline and other stress hormones coursing through our veins to enable us to respond to external threats, whether it be a burglar or an unseen virus.

And yet, if we make the conscious decision to reestablish our trust in the Lord, and not the doomsday newscasters, we can indeed experience “the peace of God that transcends all understanding” described in Philippians 4:7. How can we have such peace, when everything we’ve known and relied on seems under attack? That’s why we’re told this peace “transcends” or “passes” all understanding. We can’t manufacture it. It truly comes from beyond ourselves. From God.

As much as we hate hearing about those who become victims of the dreaded virus, we can draw a positive from this dire time. It gives us an opportunity to do a personal reappraisal revisiting where our faith really lies. When circumstances are going well, we can claim to have faith – but we really don’t need it then. “I’ve got this,” we deceptively tell ourselves, thinking we’ve got every duck in a row. Ultimately, we don’t.

I like what Proverbs 24:10 has to say about this: “If you falter in times of trouble, how small is your strength.” We’ve all been riding an emotional rollercoaster over the past few months, hoping for good news but hearing mostly bad. But in the end, what’s our foundation? From where do we draw our strength? When it feels like we’re “walking through the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4), where do we find ourselves turning for comfort and reassurance?

Finding Genuine Hope in a Hope-so World

Material things come and go, as we’ve all discovered. We buy a new shirt, dress, car or smartphone, and before we know it is worn out, broken, or outdated because of advancing technology. Unable to rely on tangible “stuff,” we find the most valuable “commodities” are intangible, not things you can store in a closet, or display on a table or in a driveway.

The so-called “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13, cites three such things: Faith, Hope, and Love. The passage declares “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13), and that says volumes. But there’s much we can also say about hope.

These days, hope seems in short supply. We turn on the news and all we hear about are disasters, tragedies, violence, political corruption, rumors of war, poverty, disease, and human misconduct in its many forms. “Good morning!” And we’re supposed to go into the day with smiles on our faces? 

Many times I’ve felt tempted to shrug in resignation, “It’s hopeless.” I suspect that’s true for all of us. The daily news is bad enough, but when circumstances invading our personal lives appear beyond resolution, it’s even worse. 

It might be a miserable job situation: We hate it, but can’t afford to quit, and there’s no other option. Or a bad marriage: Those vows exchanged, “for better or worse”? For some couples, there’s been a lot more of the worse than the better. And I have several of my friends confronting advanced stages of cancer, forced to come to grips with their mortality that might arrive sooner than later.

Faced with such situations, it’s easy to lose hope and fall into despair. Even the Bible acknowledges, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12). Too often, the best our world can offer is “hope so,” as in, “So, you think tomorrow’s weather will be nice for the picnic?” “Hope so.” Or, “Do you think the Jackals will win their game tonight?” “Hope so.” Or, “Are you confident Aunt Bessie’s surgery will go okay?” “Hope so.”

When reduced to “hope so,” we find ourselves clinging to wishful thinking. But as days, weeks and months pass without realizing the outcome we desire, that deferred hope can indeed make our hearts sick, as the passage declares. So where do we turn? What can we do?

The best advice is to turn to God. He should be our first resort, not the last. Because biblical hope isn’t a “maybe, hope-so, I wish” pursuit. It’s an earnest expectation, confident assurance based on what the Lord promises in His Word. The apostle Paul said as much when he wrote, "according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death" (Philippians 1:20).

When we have absolute trust in someone, we don’t have to take a hope-so attitude toward a promise they’ve made. If they say they will meet us at a specific time and place, they’ll be there. If we receive the assurance they will do some important thing we need done, they will do it. 

Many years ago, I was at my grandfather’s house when a toy of mine got broken. Can’t recall now what it was, or how it became damaged. I asked if he could fix it, and Grandpop – ever the handyman (unlike his grandson) – promised he would. The job wasn’t as simple as he initially thought, but he stayed with it until my bauble was returned to working order. God’s like that, only multiplied millions of times over.

We experience the trials and tribulations of life, and if someone tells us, “This too shall pass,” we want to slug them. But even in our most dire moments, we can turn to the Lord with hope – not just “hope so” – assured He will somehow work things out, even when they seem impossible. 

Not long before His earthly ministry came to an end and was ushered to the cross to pay a debt He didn’t owe, Jesus offered this consolation to His followers: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We can embrace that promise even today, with genuine hope.

Finding Real Hope in a ‘Hope-So’ World

I’ve always enjoyed music, although I only sing so-low (that people can’t hear me), and the only instruments I’ve ever played were the drums, in high school and college. (I still play the steering wheel if  something with a good beat comes on while I’m driving, but Idon’t think that counts.)

Anyway, words of familiar songs often come to mind, even simple ones that carry a good message. One that’s been running through my mind of late is “High Hopes,” a tune from the 1959 film, “A Hole in the Head,” that starred Frank Sinatra. It tells about a “little old ant” trying to move a rubber tree plant and a “silly old ram” trying to punch a hole in a dam. Despite daunting tasks, the song says, they had “high hopes.”

Some people suggest another song, “What the World Needs Now is Love,” the tune by Hal David and Burt Bacharach, but given the chaotic, confused times in which we live, I wonder if what we need even more is “High Hopes.”

A couple of weeks into the new year, we’re still covered with the barrage of negativity. If not for bad news, it seems, there’d be no news at all. I hear dozens of folks in a New England town have already collapsed into a heap of hopeless despair. Things are so bad, in the next rendition of Disney’s “Snow White,” the seven dwarfs will probably sing, “I hope, I hope….”

Unfortunately, high hopes don’t usually supply real reasons for being hopeful. Hope in this life is as reliable as tomorrow’s weather report. The best it can provide is “hope-so”: “Will the United States ever truly be ‘united’ again? Hope so.” “Can life become less stressful? Hope so.” “Are there any real prospects for peace in this world? Hope so.” “Can anyone actually find true love on ‘The Bachelor’? Hope so.”

This desire for hope is often more pragmatic than philosophical. Imagine living in poverty, whether in the inner city or a place like Appalachia, with no prospects of change. How about feeling trapped in a loveless marriage, convinced the old spark will never rekindle. Or lying in a bed, ravaged by a terminal disease, anticipating a future that might not extend beyond tomorrow morning. In such circumstances, even a tiny ray of hope could provide palpable reason to persevere.

But where can we find hope? They don’t stock it on department store shelves or at mall kiosks. Amazon sells lots of things, but not hope. History’s demonstrated we can’t find lasting hope in politics, regardless of our ideology. Science helps us understand “what” and “how,” but has little to say about “why.” Materialism’s many promises tend to be short-lived and empty. Entertainment distracts us momentarily, but can’t release us from uncomfortable realities. Even religion, with its rites, rules and rituals, too often leaves us feeling perplexed and uninspired.

Does this mean there’s no hope for finding real hope?

There is one source, and it’s been available for thousands of years, although many people have chosen to ignore it. To paraphrase yet another song of days gone by, they’re looking for hope in all the wrong places.

Whenever I feel deficient in hope, I turn to the Bible. It shows God fully understands the human need for hope. Proverbs 13:12 observes, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” Feelings of hopelessness can debilitate us physically, emotionally and spiritually, but hopes fulfilled reinvigorate. Proverbs 13:19 notes, “A longing fulfilled is sweet to the soul….”

To satisfy our yearning for hope, the Scriptures point us to a daily, growing relationship with God. The Old Testament’s book of Lamentations assures, "The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord" (Lamentations 3:25). This isn’t “hope-so”; it’s unwavering certainty.

Another meaningful verse was penned by the apostle Paul, addressing followers of Jesus Christ in Rome: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). Drawing from his own experience, he told the growing throng of believers in that sprawling city that true hope anchors in everyday faith in the Lord.

Faith – and hope – must be tried and proven. When we place our trust in something, even Jesus, time and perspective reveal whether we were banking on “hope so,” or genuine hope we can cling to with confident assurance.

The ultimate test is the day when life inevitably draws to a close and we must confront the reality of what comes next. Paul referred to this when he wrote to believers in the church of ancient Philippi, “according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).

I “hope” that as we continue our march into this new year, you won’t be settling for hope-so when you can experience the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) of Jesus Christ alone.