In Desperate Need of Hope

by Gary Meyer

This past Sunday at Christ’s Church, our lead pastor, Brad Wilson, began a new teaching series in which he is preaching through the New Testament book of Colossians verse by verse. I am really looking forward to this study. If you missed the first message in this series, you can check it out here.

Last weekend, Brad shared these words from the apostle Paul’s letter to the church at Colosse, an ancient city located in modern-day Turkey: “We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News” (Colossians 1:4, 5, NLT).

Paul says that for Christians, our faith in Jesus and love for all of God’s people spring from the hope that we have of living with God in Heaven eternally. He calls this hope an “expectation.” From my observation, I think so many people in our world today are in desperate need of something real and lasting—they need to hang on to some hope.

It seems as though for all of us when we think our lives are completely under control, and things could not be any better, WHAM! Life throws you a curveball. Something happens that you were not expecting. Even when you know some of these events are inevitable, it shocks you, and you begin to hope for the future.

The unexpected death of a loved one is devastating, but when that aging relative is suffering and we realize that it is a blessing that God chooses to relieve them of their pain and agony, we can experience some hope. Even when you know where they are headed for eternity, it’s a huge personal loss to all who miss their presence on earth.

When the situation changes at our workplace or office, as it often does, that brings about stress, and we hope for improvement. Even though it involves more responsibility and possibly more (or less) pay, we hope that we are able to meet expectations.

And as we get older, we lose some of the physical skills we possessed in our younger years. I’ve said many times, “I don’t mind getting old, it’s this falling apart that bothers me.” The normal aches and pains of an aging body can lead us to hope for a brighter tomorrow.

A Shining Example of Hope

There are many instances in Scripture in which we find desperation and a deep longing for hope. King David directs us where to find the real source of hope: “My soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him” (Psalm 62:5, NIV).

Perhaps one of the best examples of hope found in the Bible comes from the narrative concerning Noah, and how he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The account of Noah, which we read in the book of Genesis, relates how God, troubled by humanity’s wickedness, called Noah to build an ark—fifty feet high and as long as one and a half football fields—and save his family of eight, along with pairs of every animal on the earth, from a devastating global flood.

At the end of Noah’s voyage over water deep enough to cover all the high mountains, the Bible gives us these details:

“After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth” (Genesis 8:6-11, NIV).

Can you imagine what Noah and his family of eight were going through? We’ve all experienced our own “floods” in this life, not as literally as Noah did, but we have felt the floodwater rise while we sat in a waiting room as a loved one underwent surgery or another illness. Just as Noah was grasping for a little hope of an olive leaf from the birds he sent out, we have been looking for a little hope in the form of the olive leaf of life:

—“It appears the cancer may be in remission.”

—“I can help you with those finances.”

—“We’ll get through this together.”

The Giver of Hope

All of us have experienced our own need for hope through the bumps and bruises we experience in this life. We love to receive the help we need from those who deliver it. We love olive leaves and those who bring them. Perhaps that’s the reason so many loved Jesus. He stands near a woman who was yanked from a bed of promiscuity. She’s still dizzy from the raid. A door slammed open, covers were pulled back, and the fraternity of moral police barged in. And now here she stands. She could see nothing but anger. She had no hope.

But then Jesus speaks, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” (John 8:7, NIV). Silence! Both the eyes and the rocks of the accusers dropped to the ground. Within moments they had left, and Jesus was alone with the woman. The dove of Heaven offered her an olive leaf.

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:10, 11, NIV).

Into her shame-flooded world he extended a leaf of hope.

Your Olive Leaf

Have you received yours—your olive leaf? Don’t think your flood is too widespread or beyond hope . . . or your sin is too great. Pastor and author Zach Zehnder writes in his book, Red Letter Challenge: “There is no sin too big that God did not die for on the cross.”

In dealing with our life’s most crucial situations, God always has a better perspective. So, how are we to handle life’s pitfalls? Receive his hope. Receive it because you need it. Receive it so you can share it with others.

What do you think Noah did with his olive leaf of hope? Do you think he threw it overboard and forgot all about it, or perhaps he put it in his pocket for a scrapbook? Most likely, I suspect he immediately called out to all his family members to let them know they had received the olive leaf of God’s love and protection. Noah and his family had been passengers on the boat with several thousand animals for 370 days. Do you think they were excited to get off the boat?

Hope is critical. Without it we lack the energy or motivation to carry on in life. The psalmist describes where our source of hope lies: “You are my refuge and my shield; your word is my source of hope” (Psalm 119:114, NLT). Are you seeking God’s Word daily for your source of hope?

We need to seek hope 24/7. And so many people we rub shoulders with every day are in desperate need of a word of hope. The author of Hebrews tells us that “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls” (Hebrews 6:19, NLT). If you have that anchor in your soul, don’t just keep it to yourself, share it with someone who desperately needs an anchor in their life. Just like Noah, we must give olive leaves to those we love, and those whom God has placed in our path. Their lives and their eternity depend on it!

Gary Meyer has been married to his high-school sweetheart, Judy, for 57 years, and they have three children, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren (with one more on the way). Gary retired from General Electric after a 40-year career in computer science at the GE Aircraft Engine business in Cincinnati, Ohio. He says everything changed for him when he moved from being a “Jesus admirer” to a “full-time follower” of Jesus.