Joanne Gisbey: Hold on to Hope

When we have hope, we hold on to the possibility of a brighter tomorrow. We hold on to the idea that there is more than what we face today.

This week in church we sang the song ‘Obsession’ by Delirious. The lyric “I feel lonely without hope” stood out to me. I began to think about hopelessness and hope. Hopelessness is a lonely place: it’s sinking in a stormy sea; it is cold and dark; it is emptiness, despair and ultimately death.

Hope is light in the darkness, life even in death, calm in the storm, warmth in the cold, love in place of loneliness, presence filling the emptiness, and promise in place of despair. As Emily Dickinson so beautifully wrote,

“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul,And sings the tune without the words,And never stops at all,”

In this advent season we are bombarded by advertising campaigns on TV, social media and in the supermarkets telling us what we need, what we want and how our lives ‘should’ look. News and the media throw fear and despair at us. Sometimes it can feel like we are sinking in the middle of the crashing waves of the storms around us. We can feel hopeless in a chaotic world.

But the good news is there is a hope that anchors us. That hope is found in Jesus. The Bible is packed with prophecies that tell of Jesus’s coming, long before He was born.

“For to us a Child shall be born, to us a Son shall be given; And the government shall be upon His shoulder, His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)

I love this quote by Corrie Ten Boom: “There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still; with Jesus, even in our darkest moments, the best remains, and the very best is yet to be.”

Jesus came to give us hope, He came to give us life and life to the full. He came to bring light, love, forgiveness, freedom, peace and salvation. Whatever we face today – nothing is too big for Him. Hold on to hope, for He holds on to you.

Joanne Gisbey, Arun Church