“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
– Jeremiah 29:11
This article is about despair and about hope—in the personal realm, in the society in which we live, and in what is happening on a global scale. It is about the culture of despair that dominates the context of our twenty-first century lives. And it is about the culture of hope that flows from the good news of Jesus Christ.
A Culture of Despair
Dictionaries, and books that analyze our time, provide us with various definitions of despair. Some authors point out how despair results from being so much concerned with the present that it clouds people’s eyes for the future. Others emphasize that despair is, first, a deep discontentment with today’s culture and with our own role in it. All descriptions have in common that despair is a total loss of hope. Former pastor and author Rob Bell pointedly said, “Despair is believing that tomorrow will be just like today!”
As I write this article, it was twelve days since the powerful earthquake destroyed parts or Turkey and Syria and left thousands of men and women in utter despair, silently waiting till the bodies of their loved ones are recovered from under the rubble. They have no idea where and how they will live a month or a year from now. Tens of thousands of wives and mothers in Ukraine and in Russia are despairing about the fate of their husbands and sons who are fighting in a war that is as terrible as it is senseless. A culture of despair envelops the western world as one crisis follows the other, and as leaders are unable to provide political and economic stability, while ever-increasing polarization rips nations and societies apart. In his book The American Culture of Despair, sociologist Richard K. Fenn (b. 1984) writes about the cycles of crisis that create wide-ranging despair and are undeniable evidence that America, like other parts of the world, is running out of time. The recent Covid-pandemic caused millions of people world-wide to wonder in desperation whether they would also fall victim to this sword of Damocles that was hanging over our world.
Despair has assumed global proportions as wars, natural disasters, hunger, and poverty ravage entire regions of planet Earth. But beneath these global dimensions is the anguish of the millions of individuals who have lost all sense of hope: people who have no roof over their head, as well as men and women whose relationships have been shipwrecked and who experience unbearable loneliness. Annually, in the United States alone almost two million people get the devastating diagnosis that they have cancer. Each year more than 800,000 people world-wide see no other escape from their misery than to end their own lives—that is: one suicide every 39 seconds!
The Antidote for Despair
Christians maintain that there is another way of looking at the world at large, and at our personal lives. They claim to have a message of hope, and echo what the apostle Paul wrote to encourage the believers in the city of Rome, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13). For most non-Christians these words may sound quite hollow. Can there really be hope amid all the hopelessness they see around them, and which they so often experience themselves? The reply of the Christian is: Yes, there can be hope! The words of the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah are as true today as when they were first spoken: there is a God who looks after us, and this God wants nothing more fervently than to provide us with a solid hope and firm trust in the future (Jeremiah 29:11).
It is crucial, however, that we have a clear concept of what real hope consists of. For many, hope is little more than wishful thinking. Hope often is the unrealistic expectation of winning a big prize in a lottery, or it is focused on tomorrow’s weather. For others hope equals optimism. True hope, however, goes far beyond this. It is certainly good to be an optimist and to be able to see the good aspects of a given situation and not be entirely absorbed by its negative elements. True Christian hope is inextricably connected with our faith—with our trust in the One whom we have accepted as our Lord. Hope is, therefore, not just a matter of feelings. It is primarily an attitude, a state of mind. In some sense it may even be called a decision. It is a divine gift that can change our outlook on life and deliver us from anxieties. Vincent McNabb (1868-1943), an Irish poet and priest, expressed it like this: “Hope is some extraordinary spiritual grace, that God gives to control our fears. Not to oust them.” 1
Christian hope is centered in a Person—in the risen Christ. Faith in the risen Christ means the inner certainty that there is life after death; that there is a new world, even though many things seem to indicate that our present world is hopelessly falling apart. Our hope is not based on an idea. It is not based on a clever philosophy, but it is anchored in a Person. Not just in any person, but in the God, who created us, who sent his Son for us as our Redeemer, and who continues to guide us through his Holy Spirit. Our hope is based on our trust in who He is. With such a God there is always reason for true hope. Charles Allen (1913-2005), a well-known American Methodist minister once said, “When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you are slamming the door in the face of God.” The poet who wrote Psalm 147 assures us, The Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope
in his unfailing love.2
A Culture of Hope
There is a widespread misunderstanding that hope is primarily a matter of emotion. It is difficult—or it maybe even impossible—to hang on to an emotion when circumstances deteriorate. In his book Making Hope Happen, psychologist Shane J. Lopez (who has been called “the world’s most preeminent expert on hope”), argues that true hope is active. People who have hope can imagine the future and dare to set goals. Hope precipitates action. Our faith allows us to harness the kind of hope that enables us to endure the present and set realistic goals for bringing about change in the future. At the beginning of this article, despair was defined as “believing that tomorrow will be just like today!” This is in stark contrast with hope, which is the trust that tomorrow can and will be different.
Seventh-day Adventists enjoy singing the hymn that Wayne Hooper (1920-2007) wrote as the theme song for the 1962 Adventist world congress, and has ever since been the favorite of countless church members: We have this hope that burns within our hearts … The sad reality, however, is that, for many Adventist believers, their hope is mingled with a firm dose of despair. They believe that Christ is coming back, and that He is the hope for our eternal future in a new and perfect world. But they have also been taught that before He appears on the clouds, when the dead of the past will be resurrected and those who are alive and expect Him will be changed from mortal into immortal, lots of terrible things must first take place. For many Adventists the prophecies about end-time events have been a source of deep-seated fear rather than the basis for a joyful expectation. Unfortunately, Adventist eschatology has often been part of a culture of despair, rather than the epitome of a culture of hope.
Seventh-day Adventists face the momentous challenge to create and nurture in their community a culture of hope. It is only when genuine hope becomes the main denominator of the Adventist fellowship of faith, that the Advent message of hope become attractive and credible.
Adventist Christians are called to first foster a culture of hope in their local churches. The ways in which they express and live their faith, and how they share it with others, must emanate hope in such a way that it can chart a path of positive Christian action—for the individual believers and for the denomination.
Surrounded by a culture of despair, Adventists are called to be a people of hope, who impact trends and events by their counterculture of hope. Bringing hope to others will continue to strengthen their own hope—as the prophet Isaiah so powerfully underlined, Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint (Isaiah 40:31).
Reinder Bruinsma, PhD, has served the Seventh-day Adventist Church in publishing, education, and church administration on three continents. He writes from the Netherlands where he lives with his wife Aafie. Among his latest books is I Have a Future: Christ’s Resurrection and Mine. Email him at: [email protected]
1 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/vincent_mcnabb_105844
2 I lifted these two paragraphs from one of my recent books: Bruinsma, R. (2019). I Have a Future: Christ’s Resurrection and Mine. Autumn House.