Living in Hope

Introduction

Hopelessness is part of our day and time. What creates hopelessness? When there is no promise of the future being better. When it appears that the present circumstance is going to last. When no options seem evident. I teach students the importance of helping to create hope. Part of creating hope is to be filled with hope as well. Counselors are not much help if they are hopeless. But there are times when hopelessness seems to be the only response that makes sense.

When the events of life leave us feeling drained it is difficult to remember what our purpose is. It must have been hard for Jesus to remember that he was on this earth to honor his father. In the desert, it must have been difficult to keep from acting rashly just to prove who he really was. When the religious leaders in John 8 made a cutting remark about his family heritage calling him the product of adultery, it must have been difficult to remember what he was here for. When one of his closest friends tried to talk him out of continuing his journey to certain death in Jerusalem it must have been difficult for Jesus to remember why he was here.

When Goliath came out and taunted the army of God, the men lost hope and were terrified. When Babylon came out of the north like a locust plague and devoured Jerusalem, the people lost hope and believed that God had abandoned them. It is difficult to remember why we are on this earth when hope is gone. We are here to bring glory to God. Every part of our lives are to point to him. The challenge of taking up our cross and following Jesus means that we recognize that this life we live is not our own. We live a life which belongs solely and completely to God. It is his life and it is our privilege to allow him to be the Master and Lord of our lives.

Where does hope come from when the situation seems hopeless? Good question. No simple answers. But a reminder that hope when placed in that which is certain results in expectations that will be fulfilled. Hope is only hope when we wait. Hope is only hope when the situation seems hopeless. Let’s sing of our hope in the Lord.

The Story

You have heard the name of Caleb before perhaps. We meet Caleb in Numbers when he along with 11 other men are chosen to be spies. God delivered the people from Egyptian slavery. After a time around Mount Sinai to receive the law from God and to learn more about what God wants from his people, Israel moves toward the promised land. This is the land that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had walked 500 years before. This was the land that God had promised Abraham would one day belong to his descendants. The time has come for God’s people to take over the land.

First, there has to be a tactical approach. Spies were to be sent into the land. Israel was going to have to fight to take the land, but God’s promise was that the land was already there’s. Caleb is one of the 11 chosen to go into the land. They spent 40 days in the land. They came back with evidence of a land that was filled with wealth, people, and potential danger. In Numbers 13:30, Caleb is one of the spies speaking for moving forward. We know in chapter 14 that Joshua joins with Caleb but the other 10 spies build a report of doom and gloom and the people listen to the majority.

The people hear the reports of danger; they hear that giants live in the land; they hear that death is certain. They do not hear God’s promise; they ignore the pleas of Caleb. As a result they act in faithlessness and God decides that for the next 40 years the people will wander in the desert area. He will provide food, water, and safety but a generation must die before the land can be occupied. There is an exception. God allows Caleb and Joshua to survive. They will spend the next 40 years wandering the desert as well but God’s promise is that the day is coming when they will occupy the land. But they must wait 40 years.

What do you think it was like for Caleb from that day forward? How does a man continue to move forward when each passing day is a reminder of what could have been? Were there days when Caleb thought “if only…?” Were there days when Caleb was frustrated? Were there days when Caleb didn’t understand? Were there days when Caleb was hopeless? Perhaps. Or did Caleb have hope? Did Caleb become the mentor, leader, and confidante of the younger ones? Did he become the one who pointed to future and live his life with hope? We are not told about what Caleb thought for 40 years. What we are told comes 45 years later. Joshua is the leader of God’s people, but Caleb is his only peer. Everyone else is younger. Caleb and Joshua share more than a history. They share a faith and hope that has allowed them to endure 40 years of time waiting. And on that day 45 years after the fact, Caleb says to his faith partner—it’s time. It’s time for me to have the very hill country that I saw 45 years ago. Give it to me. It’s mine. I’ve been waiting for it. God promised it to me and it is time for me to take it.

Hope

That’s hope. That’s fulfillment of an expectation that occurred 45 years before. Dr. Marian Diamond, a researcher on aging at the University of California at Berkeley found in an experiments with lab rats that when one group of rats are given food directly and another group are given food only after the rats navigate their way through numerous obstacles that the rats who had to struggle to get fed actually thrived compared to the rats who were comfortable. These same rats lived longer. And the rats lived even longer when put in community rather than living separate.

We aren’t rats are we? Martin Seligman studied several hundred people who designated themselves as religious. He found that 90 percent of the most optimistic, faith-filled people were still alive at age 85. But only 34% of the most negative-pessimistic people made it to that age.

Hope is the expectation that God is working. Hope is the expectation that in the middle of problems God is still at work. Hope is the expectation that God will carry through with his promise. Hope is the response of knowing that our life is for God. Hope is the response that comes when we take up our cross. Hope is the response of giving glory to God.

Evelyn Brand was a single woman in 1909 when she went to India to work among the poor. She met and eventually married a man named Jessie. They had a very difficult start going years before anyone really wanted to know about Jesus. But eventually Jessie and Evelyn Brand had 13 years of successful ministry in India and then Jessie died. Evelyn was 50 and everyone thought she would return to England. But she didn’t. For 20 more years she served alone. Then at age 70 she lost her financial backing. She refused to go back home. She stayed. She built a shack; bought a pony for transportation and at age 70 she rode from village to village to tell people about Jesus. At age 75 she fell off the horse and broke her hip. She stayed. For another 18 years she continued to ride horseback from village to village. At age 93 she could no longer ride her horse and so men in these villages put her on a stretcher and carried her from village to village so she could continue her ministry. She died at age 95.

Where does hope come from. It comes from recognizing that our lives are not about us. They are about God. Hope comes when we listen to the promise of God. Hope comes when we recognize that the problems of life are moments to celebrate God’s promise and to allow our lives to reflect him; a time to take the cross up again.

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