Hope is a Person

        Hospitals are hard.
        They can be places of hurt, of demolished hope, of fear and uncertainty, of pain and sorrow.  But they can also be places of healing and hope, of babies born, of dreams restored, of courage found and faith displayed.  In hospitals, we experience the reality of Charles Dickens immortal words, "It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times..."
       After a hard week in the hospital for my sweet sister-in-law, yesterday was one of those especially hard days.  We learned that she has a particularly challenging form of cancer, and although we thought we were prepared for difficult news, well, we weren't really prepared.  I don't think you ever fully can be.
       And yet even in the heartbreak and fear, there's that kernel of hope.  Because our hope isn't in a great diagnosis, or in wonderful doctors, or in perfect health, or in happy circumstances...our hope is in Christ.
       Hope isn't a feeling.  Hope isn't a concept.  Hope is a Person, and His name is Jesus.     
       "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
         As my daughter, Mary Norris, so eloquently expressed it to my sister-in-law when she learned of the news yesterday: "One thing I will never forget is something someone told me when Janie's situation was looking really bleak--doctors can only give us news...they cannot give us hope.  Hope comes from God and God alone.  Your future is secure and He meets us at our weakest and most lonely, vulnerable places."
          We have a God who weeps with us in our pain and sorrow.  We have a God who fully suffered and completely understands every single pain, sorrow, and disappointment we'll ever face.  He knows what it is to betrayed...to be rejected...to be lonely...to suffer pain and defeat and death.
         And He's promised us that on this lovely, broken planet, we too will suffer.  "I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation..."  Yes, we will experience sorrow, pain, disease...BUT that's not the end of the story!
          No sir! Finish the verse! Because following yet another of those amazing "but's" in the Word of God are words of glorious hope, certain hope, Jesus-this-is-gonna-get-mighty-good-hope: "...But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
           I don't know what you might be enduring today or facing tomorrow, but this I do know: Jesus has promised never to leave us us nor forsake us. (Heb.13:5)  He's promised He's bringing ultimate and eternal good out of ALL things. (Rom.8:28) He's promised that He's making all things new (Rev.21:5 And by the way, He's not just making all new things, but making all things new!  Praise God!!)  He's promised that He is preparing a place for us in heaven (John 14:3) and that our light and momentary afflictions are preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison (2 Cor.4:17)  And He's promised that He's overcome the world...so we can, we should, we must take heart!
          I have to quote my precious daughter one more time in the text she sent to my sister-in-law: "Isn't it amazing how we have a God who sits with us in our pain? That if feels like He draws nearest when we're hurting and provides tangible reminders that He loves us?  He is ultimately writing a story that fully redeems everything on this earth and one day it will be made whole again.  We can rest in that assurance and in the meantime hope in His unfailing promises."   Amen and amen.
         Cancer doesn't have the last word.  Divorce doesn't have the last word. Disease doesn't have the last world. Depression doesn't have the last word.  Addiction doesn't have the last word.  Destroyed finances or relationships or health don't have the last word.
          Jesus has the first and last word forever and ever and ever.  He is our Hope.  He is our Anchor in the storm.  And He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Real, abundant, eternal, glorious, hope-fulfilled Life with a capital L.
          I don't know what the coming months will look like for my dear sister-in-law...or for any one of us on the planet for that matter. But I know the One who knows and holds us all in His nail-scarred hands.  And if He says He's always with us...and He's overcome the world...and He's bringing our good and His glory out of all things...and He's making all things new, well then, we're good.  Even while we fight the good fight against this cancer, we place our hope in God and in God alone.  And He's got us.  He's got her.  He's got you.  He is Hope.
         To God be the glory.