Hope’s Dark Side

Hope can be a great motivator. Hope compels ordinary men and women to become legendary heroes, figures that inspire and challenge the generations that come after them. Hope turns the bleakest of situations into monumental triumphs, as long as that ray of light is kept in sight. Hope is what keeps people going in the day to day when life gets too heavy. The hope that “tomorrow” will be better. The hope that what you do now will make a difference, will make an impact, on the world of tomorrow. Hope is what keeps you going in a German death camp or Soviet gulag. Hope is what keeps you going through times of depression and darkness. Hope is what compels young men and women to pursue opportunities and dare to be something.

“Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air…but only for one second without hope.” – Hal Lindsey

Hope is necessary to life itself. One need not look very hard to see what happens to people who lose hope. Many people who lose hope lose their lives. Whether it be the rich movie star, the struggling mom or dad, the overburdened student, a life without hope ends. It is one of the most precious things given to us to hold on to and keep us alive. Yet, hope isn’t always a beneficial thing.

Hope is what keeps you from starting an uprising in a Nazi death camp or Soviet prison. The idea that maybe you’ll survive long enough to be rescued is what keeps you doing exactly what you are told by those who would rather just kill you on the spot. Hope is what keeps you from acting to survive when you line up to go “shower” for the last time. This hope that somehow you will get out alive keeps you from trying to overthrow your captors, lest you be killed. Never mind that maybe your actions, while costing you your own life, may save the lives of others if you succeed. As long as you hope that you make it out alive, you continue to be the sheep led to slaughter.

Hope is what keeps you in an abusive, toxic relationship. The hope that tomorrow will be different. That he or she will change how they are. The hitting, the screaming, the silence and coldness are all worth it if they change. So you hope that they do, and you take the abuse each day while clinging to this hope that the other will see the error of their ways and get better. That hope that you have is crushing you, killing you, but you don’t see it. You toughen up, you brace for impact, nothing changes day after day, but this person means too much to you, and you hope they can change.

Hope is good. Hope is essential. But the hope in the wrong thing, hope in the wrong people, leads to slavery and oppression much more often than whatever you may be hoping for. Hope in the right thing and hope in the wrong thing can still get you through the day, but one allows things to progress forward while the other keeps you chained. Put your hope in the right thing.

Lamentations 3:21-25

This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The LORD’s lovingkindesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.

The book of Lamentations is easily the most emotional, depressing book ever written. Jeremiah the prophet had been ministering to Judah and Jerusalem for almost 40 years, imploring the nation to turn back to God lest they be absolutely destroyed. Jeremiah loved his nation and the people in it, but he hated their sins and harlotries. Jeremiah’s message was one of “last chances”, God’s continuous attempts to bring His people back to Him. The people rejected Jeremiah, and rejected God.

God, while patient and loving, is also holy and just, and their last chance had passed. It was time for sin to be judged. Judgment came in the form of the Babylonian armies destroying Jerusalem, killing the Jews, and carting off thousands more as slaves and captives. If you want to know just how complete and horrible a destruction occurred, read Jeremiah 52 as it recounts in grisly detail all that occurred at this judgment.

Jeremiah was allowed to stay in Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. The book of Lamentations is his recording of what is left. Jeremiah walks amongst the streets of Jerusalem, seeing the devastation that has been wrought. Children lie dead in the streets, parents have become savages who eat their own children, Jews are slaughtered in their homes and streets just for existing, food is scarce, the buildings have all been torched, the leaders have either been killed or carted off, the wealthy have been robbed of everything, women are raped, the priests are killed in the temple courts where their blood stains the holy place, and all the surrounding nations rejoice at Judah’s destruction and mock their suffering. This is what he has spent 40 years warning the people about, what he knew was coming, and now he sees it all before him.

In the middle of his cries of anguish to God for what had happened to the people and Jerusalem, Jeremiah writes Lamentations 3:21-25. These verses of hope in God, in God’s lovingkindness and compassion, God’s goodness and faithfulness are all penned in the middle of absolute desolation and destruction.

If Jeremiah had put his hope in material possessions, he’d have no hope now. Only the poorest of the land were left to cultivate the land of Judah. All those who were wealthy were either dead, captured, or poor. Materialism didn’t hold up under this level of destruction.

If Jeremiah had put his hope in pleasure, he’d have no hope now. All the wine, all the good food, was stolen and gone. The prostitutes and women were either dead, captured, or raped by the Babylonians. Any semblance of pleasure was completely gone from Jerusalem.

If Jeremiah has put his hope in people, he’d have no hope now. People just came in and killed other people. People caused all the destruction around him: the Jews for deserving destruction and the Babylonians for destroying.

Jeremiah didn’t put his hope in the things he had, the people he knew, or the things he could do. Jeremiah put his hope in the Lord. That is why Jeremiah was able to have any hope at all. Jeremiah knew the Lord was righteous, good, holy, just, loving, gracious, merciful, and unchanging. Jeremiah knew that the Lord was the only One that could be relied on to save the miserable situation that was before him. Jeremiah didn’t put his hope in the wrong thing.

If your hope is in things, money or whatever it may be, eventually those things fall apart. Things get destroyed. Things get taken. Things don’t matter at the end of life. If your hope is in pleasure, eventually that takes away any contentment. The needle, the joint, the bottle, the computer screen, the food, whatever it may be, will just demand more and more of you until you crumble or the high isn’t enough and the pain doesn’t stop. It crushes and oppresses. If your hope is in people, they’ll fail you. Humans are wicked creatures, and they’ll always fail you at some point, dashing your hope. Every human has a sin problem, every human is a sinner, and more often than not we do the wrong thing and those who put their hope in us get hurt, disillusioned, and distant.

Only in Jesus Christ can any real hope be found. A hope that lasts, that never fails. Jesus Christ came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, died in your place for your sins before God, rose again on the third day so that all mankind may have the hope of eternal life with God forever after this life ends. All you have to do to have that hope is put your faith and trust in Jesus death, burial and resurrection as your only way of having right standing before God. Believe, and begin the lifelong journey of knowing, loving, and following Jesus Christ more and more as you experience and learn of His goodness, faithfulness, kindness, holiness, mercy, and grace through the Bible, others around you, and your own life.

Jeremiah put his faith and trust in God, and he had a hope that could not be taken from him, and hope that would last through the most horrible of circumstances. You can have that same hope. Either you fall on hope’s good side or hope’s dark side.