Chaplain's Corner
by Rev. Randy L Evans
Hospice Chaplain
At the end of World War II, an American sub came back to Newport News, Virginia to dock. As it came into port something terrible went wrong with the mechanism and it began to sink in the harbor. They immediately dispatched coast guard to go out because obviously it was full of crew and they were trying to save the crew. They dispatched divers that would dive down to the hull of the submarine and find out what went wrong. As the divers swam around the sub you could hear that one inventive sailor had a hammer and was knocking on the hull from the inside in Morse code, “Is there hope?”
Is there hope? That’s one of the fundamental questions of life.
-When you’re sitting in the doctor’s office awaiting tests, you hear the question, “Is there hope?”
-When you’re standing by the bedside at the hospital, you hear the question, “Is there hope?”
-When a couple, who’ve put months and months into marriage counseling, are sitting there and getting nowhere and they’re thinking in their minds, “Is there hope?”
-When you’re dealing with a tax accountant in a bankruptcy court and you ask, “Is there hope?”
-When a couple or a family hears that their child is missing, they ask the police, “Is there hope?”
You can go forty days without food, three days without water, and eight minutes without air, but you can’t go a single second without hope. Hope is one of the essentials of life. When hope is gone, life is over. You need hope to cope.
Where do you go to find the hope that you need? The Bible tells us that you find it in God. God is the source – the source of hope.
Romans 15:13 (NLT) I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
There is no place that God is not. There is no place you will go that God isn’t. God has been in your past. He’s in your present. He’s going to be in your future. He’s in the good times and the bad times. He’s in the good places. He’s in the evil places. He is everywhere.
This has profound implications on where you find hope. If God is truly with me all the time, whether I feel it or not, if He’s truly with me, then that means there are some sources of hope that I can count on.
AND BECAUSE GOD IS ALWAYS WITH ME
The first thing I know about God is….1. HIS PRESENCE IS WATCHING OVER ME.
The older I get the more I realize how much of my life is out of my control. The truth is, not only can I not control much of what’s in the future, I don’t even know much of what’s in the future.Isaiah 41:10 (NLT) Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.
The good news is regardless of what happens, you and I don’t have to go through it alone. There is a God who will be with us. He will be there with you. That is one of the certainties of life that I can hold on to. When I hold onto that certainty, I have hope.
The second source of hope is this:
2. HIS PURPOSE IS WORKING IN ME.
No matter what’s happening in my life – good, bad, or ugly – God’s purpose is working in me.
God is doing good things in my life even when the situation is bad, even when I don’t feel it, even when it doesn’t make sense, even when I have no understanding. When the situation is bad, He is still doing good things in my life.Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
You may think that what God is doing in your life right now is painful and is to no avail but God says, “My plan is good. You just don’t see it. You need to trust me. You need to have hope because it’s a plan to give you a hope and a future.”
Philippians 1:6 (NLT) And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
There’s a third source of hope and it’s this:
3. GOD’S PLACE IS WAITING FOR ME.
When things get unbearable in your life you remember that our ultimate hope is heaven. The apostle Paul says it like this, “If all our hope is just on this earth, we should be pitied.” There’s more to life than just here and now. We do have an ultimate destination. This is just the warm-up act, and God is preparing a place in heaven.Notice what Jesus said...
John 14:1-2 (NLT) 1 “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?WHAT DO YOU THINK HEAVEN WILL BE LIKE?
Revelation 21:4 (NLT) He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”
That gives us a reason for hope.
When I have hope what happens?Isaiah 40:31 (NLT) But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.