Hope is a small word with a powerful meaning. Rhianna released a new song a few weeks ago that immediately hit No#1 in the UK single charts: ‘We found love in a hopeless place’. I’m not surprised by the success of her latest sound not just because the song sticks in your head but because of the words and the connection it makes with ordinary people that live in this world. The world is a hopeless place. Many people feel the desperation of this and as a consequence are led down an even darker road.
When I first listened to the song I wondered why it doesn’t say “We found hope in a hopeless place” and then I thought further. It is love that lifts us out of hopelessness. God, the one that gives hope, brings it through love that is displayed in Jesus.
My childhood and early years being a teenager were filled with hopelessness and despair. Many times I found myself empty and confused of why I even live. Family life was destructive and loveless as shouting at each other was normality and regular fights between my mum and her husband got out of control to a measure I don’t want to describe.
Nothing else but love could have saved me from this hopeless place. Nowadays it is no news that children grow up without their fathers and experience abuse by men that join their families. Twenty years ago and living in the area where I lived then, a small sheltered country side town, this was not a common thing. I felt alone in this place that no one around me could understand. It is almost unthinkable now that everyone else’s parents in my primary school class were not only together but married. Only ten years down the line would this take a turn and divorces became more common in our little town.
Now that this brokenness and breakdown of the family system is normal and finding a functional family is like finding a piece of gold, people are still hurting. The pain is still the same even though it is not seen as something unique.
Not knowing love when growing up can take away hope for the future, yet knowing love can keep us strong. The emphasis I want to bring here is that the hopeless place still exists, life doesn’t necessarily change once we have found love but it creates a more positive outlook for the future. Healthy relationships can give us hope as can achievable career goals, a stable life and countless other things.
Yet people know earthly love and are still hopeless. It was only God’s love that gave me hope. It is hard to explain what happened or what that even means as not everyone makes this experience but if I had to describe it, I would say it was like someone opening my heart, allowing me to feel the pain and holding me closely, knowing I am safe.
In a big way I am very grateful I was not brought up in a Christian family and Church as I can’t stand the politics that go on in churches, all caught up in their little minority group existence! Even when I decided to believe in Jesus and gave him my life I was not surrounded by lots of Christians for a good few years. I feel privileged in this way that I was able to know God’s love and this alone without anything added.
This is what drives me and motivates me in doing what I’m doing – telling the world that there is hope. There is ALWAYS HOPE! 1 Corinthians 13, 13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” There is no better way in saying it. These three things are so closely linked and the most important thing in everyone’s life! Don’t ever lose hope, because if you do, you lose everything. Someone that loses hope has no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no way out as this is what hope does – giving light and showing a way.
When I first listened to the song I wondered why it doesn’t say “We found hope in a hopeless place” and then I thought further. It is love that lifts us out of hopelessness. God, the one that gives hope, brings it through love that is displayed in Jesus.
My childhood and early years being a teenager were filled with hopelessness and despair. Many times I found myself empty and confused of why I even live. Family life was destructive and loveless as shouting at each other was normality and regular fights between my mum and her husband got out of control to a measure I don’t want to describe.
Nothing else but love could have saved me from this hopeless place. Nowadays it is no news that children grow up without their fathers and experience abuse by men that join their families. Twenty years ago and living in the area where I lived then, a small sheltered country side town, this was not a common thing. I felt alone in this place that no one around me could understand. It is almost unthinkable now that everyone else’s parents in my primary school class were not only together but married. Only ten years down the line would this take a turn and divorces became more common in our little town.
Now that this brokenness and breakdown of the family system is normal and finding a functional family is like finding a piece of gold, people are still hurting. The pain is still the same even though it is not seen as something unique.
Not knowing love when growing up can take away hope for the future, yet knowing love can keep us strong. The emphasis I want to bring here is that the hopeless place still exists, life doesn’t necessarily change once we have found love but it creates a more positive outlook for the future. Healthy relationships can give us hope as can achievable career goals, a stable life and countless other things.
Yet people know earthly love and are still hopeless. It was only God’s love that gave me hope. It is hard to explain what happened or what that even means as not everyone makes this experience but if I had to describe it, I would say it was like someone opening my heart, allowing me to feel the pain and holding me closely, knowing I am safe.
In a big way I am very grateful I was not brought up in a Christian family and Church as I can’t stand the politics that go on in churches, all caught up in their little minority group existence! Even when I decided to believe in Jesus and gave him my life I was not surrounded by lots of Christians for a good few years. I feel privileged in this way that I was able to know God’s love and this alone without anything added.
This is what drives me and motivates me in doing what I’m doing – telling the world that there is hope. There is ALWAYS HOPE! 1 Corinthians 13, 13: “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” There is no better way in saying it. These three things are so closely linked and the most important thing in everyone’s life! Don’t ever lose hope, because if you do, you lose everything. Someone that loses hope has no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no way out as this is what hope does – giving light and showing a way.
Your turn, what are your thoughts on this topic? What is your experience? We want to know, join our couch and share with us!
