HOPE UNDER SIEGE

Image by Christopher Ritter on Unsplash

HOPE UNDER SIEGE

Ever since we began our study of 1 Peter on Sunday mornings, I've been struck by the place of Hope in the Christian life.  I think many of us have favorite words, ideas, themes, or characters in the Bible.    

That stand-out theme for me is: Hope.  Hope is essential to victorious living.  Unfortunately, it is also greatly misunderstood.  We usually think of hope as wishing for something to happen that hasn't yet–and may not ever.  Many of us older folk may think of hope chests (a pretty much antiquated idea even for baby boomers like me!).  I'm not aware of anyone who has a hope chest these days, but in days of old young women would from childhood store things away that they one day intended to take into their marriage: clothing, linens, quilts, even dishes or china.  The idea was to live in the present moment with an enduring vision of the future that one hoped to one day live out in reality.  Practicing hope, then, did two things: it helped whet one's appetite for future joy, and it taught one how to live in the not-yet with perseverance.

While the notion of hope chests may be old-fashioned, Hope itself is certainly not.  There is quite simply no effective way to live well in the 21st century without it.  Even–and perhaps especially–for those who believe that Christian Hope is just a fantasy, an ancient relic of pie-in-the-sky thinking, there is no denying that we all have an in-born longing for fulfillment, for a wonderful, not-yet life that haunts our day-to-day living.  And even if it isn't so, we wish in the deepest part of our being that it were.

In the same way, we people of faith like to think that following Jesus will lead us into paths of bliss and fulfillment.  But it doesn't take long for us to realize that this Christ-following life is very often filled more with mystery than it is with answers.  I'm reminded of a line in C.S. Lewis' great work Till We Have Faces: "I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away." Our hope is, in a word, Jesus. And what we need and long for, more even than answers, is a living encounter with Him.

In the meantime, the plain and simple reality for broken people in a wounded world (whether we're Christ-followers or not) is that life is hard and sometimes backs us into a corner or leaves us panting and desperate for help in the midst of the storm.  In my own life, there have been times when it felt like all the forces of evil and darkness were arrayed against me.  "Bad things happen to everyone," I thought, "but this feels personal."  

Have you ever been in a place like this?  Are you maybe even in one right now?  Feeling utterly powerless in such times is dark and lonely.  But these times are the proving ground, even the breeding ground, of Hope.

There's a military word that describes this kind of assault.  Siege.  A siege is a form of attack that is more passive than explosive.  In a siege, the enemy surrounds you, cuts you off from food, supplies, resources, and reinforcements.  It's an attack intended to wear you down, break your spirit, and drive you to surrender.  Its main weapon is not tanks and guns, but despair.  The temptation for us is to believe that we are completely, utterly alone.  Abandoned.  Broken.  HOPE-less.

I believe the greatest test we face as believers is what to do when we feel we are under siege.  When the hard, painful, gut-wrenching stuff of life seeks to choke out our life.  When treachery and the inexplicable surround us on every side.   

Faith does not mean that we will never know this kind of darkness.  Faith means that we have resources of strength, patience, joy … even hope ... right in the very midst of it!  Hope that says–again, right in the thick of the battle–"My circumstances don't define me. And they don't limit the God who made me and called me into being.  His plans for me will be fulfilled no matter what I face today."

Hope is living by faith with the conviction that no matter how loudly my circumstances shout "Despair!" there is One who Himself faces my evil, darkness, loneliness and despair right alongside me.  And the Hope that lives and breathes in us then cries out, "He will–He has!–overcome.  Even though I die, yet will I live!"  When we practice living every day trusting not in our own ability to ratchet up the strength and resolve to conquer our enemies, but rather trusting in His already-won victory over those very same enemies, then we find opened to us vast resources of His life pulsing through the veins of our bodies and souls.

In Psalm 31 David says, 

"Blessed be the LORD, 

for He has wondrously shown His steadfast love to me 

when I was beset as a city under siege." (v. 21)

This is the voice of Hope.  First, David is reminded that God does indeed have a track record that far precedes his own small, mortal life.  He remembers that "God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth" (Ps. 74:12).  God's purpose from the very beginning has been about working salvation in the earth, kneading into Creation like yeast into a batch of dough.  His hands are not tied.  His arm is not too weak.  The Word of His mouth is not too feeble.  His great purpose has not changed or failed.

But David also knows what it is like to be backed into a corner (like you are), panting and desperate for help (like you are) in the midst of the storm.  For until Christ returns, we live in enemy territory, and every day has storms and anxieties of its own.

But right in the middle of this trouble Hope cries out:  "Jesus has shown His steadfast love to me!  Even when I am beset like a city under siege, I know the steadfast love of the LORD!"  

In our own way, each of us is a city under siege–and yet "no man is an island."  We are not left alone.  There is One who walks alongside us in all our troubles.  Though we seem to be alone and cut off, we are in actuality held in the everlasting arms of God, our Rock, our Fortress, our Refuge, our Redeemer.

And this great God has also blessed us with a heavenly community.  The Body of Christ.  The fellowship of the saints–our brothers and sisters indwelt by the Spirit of Christ Himself.  We are God's gifts to one another.  In light of this great blessing, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul, "Let us not grow weary of doing good and of loving and serving and encouraging one another!"  

Be encouraged, friend, for God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who spoke all worlds into being, is both with you and for you.