I read recently that about a week before Christmas in 1927, a navy submarine and a coast guard ship collided in the Atlantic Ocean a mile off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts (Carter, Grieve, Breathe, Receive, 39-40). How could that have happened? What are the odds of two ships accidentally crashing into each other in an ocean 3,000 miles wide, spanning 20% of the earth’s surface, and covering roughly 41,000,000 square miles?
The loss was significant for the crew of the USS S-4 submarine. The team took on water and began to sink to 17 fathoms (about 106 feet). The six crew members who were still alive locked themselves in the hull, waiting and praying to be rescued.
The US Coast Guard and US Navy went into emergency mode. They sent divers down to explore the damage and heard loud tapping from within. The crew was trying to communicate in Morse Code. Through the deep water came a metal tinging:
.. ... /- .... . .-. . / .- -. -.-- / .... --- .--. .
I S—T H E R E—A N Y—H O P E?
I can’t imagine facing such a hopeless situation. And yet so many people in our world today feel trapped, unable to overcome, distraught over their present circumstances. In a word, they feel hopeless.
Is there any hope?
The words of scripture shout in the affirmative that hope is real, hope is possible, hope is alive even in what appears to be hopelessness. We have “the full assurance of hope” (Hebrews 6:11). We “overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). We have a love that “always hopes” (1 Corinthians 13:7). We have “the hope stored up for us in heaven” (Colossians 1:5), which is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). We have “the hope of salvation as a helmet” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). We have “the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13). This hope is “an anchor for the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).
The word “hope” is used over 50 times in the New Testament, which was a cultural clash with those in the Roman world of the first century. Hope was not held in high regard. In fact, people thought so little of it that they ridiculed others for demonstrating any semblance of hope. In grammar school, children were taught to limit dreaming and hope by creating what was commonly called a “hardship list.” They would predict trials, tribulations, and suffering they could encounter in the future and write them down. Can you imagine third graders today being required to journal their most frightening and catastrophic fears, writing them down as if they were guaranteed to come true someday?
The Romans wanted their kids to be prepared to handle the hardships they knew would be part of their future. In the Roman Empire, if you had hope, you were considered weak because some considered it to be a moral disease. It meant you depended on a power outside yourself.
This was intended to create toughness, but in reality, it created hopelessness.
Into that culture—and ours today—entered the hope of Jesus Christ, and it revolutionized the world. When we hope in Jesus, we don’t deny the reality of pain or suffering, but we see beyond it. We hope beyond the present crisis, illness, or divorce.
Christian hope does not lead to denial but determination. It does not promote weakness but strength. It does not anesthetize but reminds us there is an “eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17). And for this we wait with patience. “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8:24-25).
Is there any hope? The Spirit firmly declares, “Yes!” “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).
So, my question for you is, Are you living in that hope? Turn to Jesus, for only in Him will you gain the full assurance of hope.
