Hope in the face of despair

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in Him.”
– Lamentations 3:21-24

This week, we all have been reminded of the evil that fills this world. Life apart from Christ and His salvation bears devastating consequence. Innocence was taken from the lives of many children this week as they witnessed incomprehensible violence before their very eyes. Families are left beyond heartbroken as they grieve the loss of their children and friends. In a world that continues to repeat these senseless acts of evil, where can we find our hope? Evil bears no regard for the young, the innocent, or the good. And evil remains all around us. Because people will forever reject the love and salvation of Jesus Christ, evil will remain until His return, to which my heart’s only response is, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come.”

Over the past few days, social media has been inundated with posts, blogs, opinions, jabs, grief, hate, and more surrounding the events of the school shooting in Connecticut. I’ve read great things in response, and I’ve read terrible things. Perhaps we could push the pause button on all of our opinions for just a moment and choose to grieve alongside the broken. Let the tears flow; allow the ache to set in. Be brokenhearted over the evil that took the lives of so many on Friday morning, for it is in brokenness that we often recognize our need for the Savior. Only He will one day set all things right, and in that truth we find our hope.

On more than one occasion of grief, heart-sickness, and pain, I have found lasting comfort in the inspired words of Lamentations 3. As the writer spends five chapters of Scripture wailing and crying aloud over the destruction of Jerusalem and God’s chosen people, Israel, tucked right in the middle of all the grief and sorrow we find words that can restore our hope. The Israelites have literally been taken as slaves to Babylon, many have been slaughtered along the way (men, women, and children), and others have been left to rot in the ashes of fallen Jerusalem. I simply cannot imagine the scene. I cannot imagine the sounds of wailing coming from the mouths of mothers who have lost their children as they lie in the streets awaiting death themselves. This is the reality of this Biblical scene. Judgment had fallen hard on the people of Israel, and all that was left was the ability to mourn. Yet, amidst the greatest devastation and defeat he had ever seen, the prophet Jeremiah and writer of the book of Lamentations calls to mind the character of God. He chooses to take up great confidence in the hope that can be found in God’s compassion. Could we take a moment right now to simply do the same?

When I first heard of the tragedy that rocked our nation on Friday morning, it felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. I don’t even have children of my own, yet just the mere thought of the grief that was overtaking the hearts of those directly affected caused tears to stream down my face. It is in moments like these that I am so grateful for the truth of God’s Word. Verses flooded to my mind that I immediately began to pray over the families of the victims as I, along with countless others, tried to understand why. Too many things happen in our day-to-day that I’m not sure we will ever have answers for that would ease the pain of our hearts. One thing I do know to be true is this:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

I

t is in this truth alone that I find hope. God’s silence never implies His absence. He stands true to His Word when He promises that He will never leave us or forsake us. I tend to believe that we will never posses the answers to our “whys” in the face of such tragedies on this side of heaven. In the silence, God extends to us His love that never ceases, His mercies that never end, and His constant presence. That is who He is. If we could call to mind His character, we, too, would find hope. Hope in the face of despair is not an impossibility; it is a certainty to all who call to mind the unchanging character of God’s steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness.