SHARE YOUR HOPE

April 7

​My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, And come to an end without hope. 

Job 7:6

RS was an acquaintance of mine from JHS days. I periodically invited him to church, which he never attended, and YFC meetings, which he attended a couple of times. He was regularly in trouble in school. There was the year you could walk in a classroom and know where RS sat by the collection of small paper airplanes stuck in the ceiling, tossed while the teacher’s back was turned. He even had a grouping in the gym ceiling! Then there was the day after Trick or Treat one year when he was confronted by a teacher whose four tire valves he had removed. RS had to pump up the tires using a bicycle pump. One night my senior year my family could hear the police chasing someone through the neighborhoods. The next day in school we discovered it was RS. After his encounter with the police he parked his car in his garage, ran a hose from the exhaust pipe to the cabin, and exited this life.

What makes a young person decide they have nothing left to live for? What makes anyone decide this life is not worth living anymore? We live among RSs whose lives are spinning out of control, and they do know how to change it; they do not have any hope of change. All they can see is Job 7:1-10. And it is not always obvious who they are. They need to know about forgiveness, fresh starts in Jesus, being born again—they need to see hope working in YOU.

True Christians always have hope because we have an anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) that is sure. Show them Romans 15:13: “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” 

Jeffrey Eno