Hope Is Never Futile
It’s true; hope is never futile. Reminders hit home almost daily here.
More than 30 years ago, in a small religious bookstore in Springfield, Mo., I bought a wallet-size card with this prayer for hope:
“Dear God, on those days when hope escapes me, when all I am is weary, when darkness is all I see, let Your strength be my beacon like a lighthouse on a rock, shining bright enough to dispel the clouds of despair and bring me new vision.”
That card has been in my wallet ever since; it’s more worn out than not, but I’ll never get rid of it – or even remove it from my wallet in order to keep it in some reasonable condition. I see that card and its tattered, delaminating corners as a collective metaphor. It is beaten and battered; all of us have felt – and maybe been – as beaten and battered in our own ways over the years. But like that prayer’s call for God’s strength to “be my beacon like a lighthouse on a rock,” its mere presence lends hope to my every day.
You may have something that impacts you in a similar way. Many of us, for example, turn to a favorite Bible verse – or that one passage that always seems “on point” for us. Here are a few examples that relate to hope:
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” – Proverbs 3:5-6
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:5
Lent is time when many of us grow more sensitive to attacks from the devil. These 40 days are, of course, one of the key times in the Church year when we are encouraged to draw closer to God with a collective sense of hope in the coming of our Savior. Satan has no interest in anyone drawing closer to God, so attacks come to distract us … to try to get us to rely on our own insight.
This column appears in the March 11 issue of The Message – two weeks before Good Friday. We are well into Lent’s 40 days of prayer, fasting, almsgiving and preparation. If you haven’t thought about it much, try to spend a few minutes each day moving forward to contemplate hope. God’s love and mercy provides an endless supply to everyone who remembers that He has plans for them … “plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
