Where Hope Remains

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

People told Kati that she had a lot of strength to be able to endure what she had here on earth and do it with a smile most of the time. She was very strong; she didn’t have a choice. Experiences can either make or break you. Sometimes it does both. I got to see a side of Kati that most did not. There was many nights of heartache and pain throughout her life dealing with health issues. Some of those nights were times of great sorrow. Nothing that anyone else in her position would probably not experience. Life is hard. Life sucks sometimes. Many of those nights were filled with joy knowing that God was on our side, that no matter what the pain was temporary. She and I had this conversation often about how people deal with life. We both wondered how anyone could deal with everything that she endured without God. People who aren’t Christians get sick. They get cancer or kidney disease or any other terminal illness. So how do they deal with what life hands them? Where do they turn when life gets hard? I don’t know the answer to this, but I would like to think that the majority of them would turn to Jesus. When you are weary with illness or burdened with grief and all hope seems lost, why would you not go to the place where hope remains… where you can find rest?

It is hard to find hope “in the moment.” In the moment of sickness. In the moment of sorrow or grief. In the moment when all hope seems lost. All we see in that moment is our pain and suffering. Kati and I had a lot of those moments dealing with her illness. I have had many, many moments like that since she had passed away. I lost everything “in that moment” when she died. Love was gone. Peace was gone. Happiness was gone. Desire was gone. Motivation was gone. Hope was gone. In that moment, my life was gone. Even as a Christian, it seems that the world had just come crashing down on top of me all at once. I knew God was there, but Kati was not. God was the same and is the same, but my life was not. Nothing past that moment would ever be the same. I am thankful that, as Christians, we do not live in the moment. We should live everyday to its fullest as best we can and be prepared as if today could be our last. But living in such a way that all that matters is that timeframe of “right now” leads to disappointment and dissatisfaction. God has given us a reason to look forward. While all hope may be lost in that moment, we know that our hope does not lie within the constraints of this earthly life. Our hope lies in a God of the present, past, and future. Our hope lies in a Savior that is concerned for us in EVERY moment, not just in this moment of hardship.

Romans 5 tells us “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Our hope does not come through our circumstances in life. It is not defined by any one moment in time in our life. Our hope is Christ Jesus, who is forever. Our hope is in the fact that this life, in this moment, is not the end of all things. “Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” I don’t like that word: patience. In a world of instant gratification, patient is not commonplace anymore. I will be the first to admit that I lack a lot of patience. But I will wait, in the hope of Jesus Christ, to have a life not just in this moment, but in eternity.