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!
This is the first time Ive commented on the blog, but I feel it really hits a close spot. I feel genuinely lost most of the time when I look around about what is becoming 'normal'...how 2-parent families are treasures to find, and that a marriage thats still going strong after 20 years is a rarity. i was brought up in an amazingly loving family, and church was always a centre part of our lives, but as i got older i found that the 'love' of a church can also be quite superificial, they want to be seen to be helping, but when it comes down to it, when you need someone the most you're let down. when i went through the stage where i started to struggle with love and acceptance I was actually asked to leave my church youth group, for me this meant that God had let me down. I couldnt separate church politics from the love of God and as a result turned about from my faith. It took me years and years to realise how wrong i'd been, and that God had been waiting for me to run back to him the entire time. To tell me he loved me and was never going to let me down.
ReplyDeleteEven now, focusing on the earthly love does make me lose hope and experiencing only recently how drastically it can let you down leaves me feeling quite hollow...and doubting how love and marriage is ever going to mean what it used to. but whats kept me going is knowing God's love. knowing that he won't ever let me down, change his mind or turn his back on just how much he cares for us. knowing God's love is literally what gets me through the days when you lose faith in people..
I think its tragic how hopeless this world has become, how selfish people can be and how lasting relationships and friendships are hard to find. but i have learnt that acceptance from those things is not important, and although God doesnt call us to be alone, he wants us to rely on him first and find our comfort and acceptance in him.
So if youre reading this, and you have that hollow feeling inside you that no-one cares, look to God, and he will fill you with so much love you'll wonder how you ever managed without Him.
It's mad how I read this tonight as even though I am a Christian and totally wouldn't ever want to go back I have had a really rubbish night and have just wanted to cry and run away... But God is amazing an he knew I needed to be reminded of how much he loves me and that he will never leave me. I needed to hear from him tonight and reading this that has been answered. Because of what I have experienced in the past I sometimes get a real attack in some areas of my life and I often have to remind myself of the word 'hope' and how amazing it is. I have to keep fighting this battle as it's not always easy but there is hope as the victory has already been won. But for all those Christians out there keep lighting that fire each day as if we don't I notice I know we can become weak!!! I once heard this quote... 'He is always there... he is just waiting for us to turn up'. x
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you are saying; I found god and his love when I was going through a completely hopeless time in my life. Me and my family were all feeling lost and alone and could not see where to turn to next, and it was on the very day when things got a whole lot worse, more so than I could have imagined, that I truly felt gods love for the first time. It is the only thing that got me through to the place where I am today. Friends and family were being supportive and loving but it was not enough, it was only the immense and unconditional love that I felt from god that was strong enough to reach me and pull me though.
ReplyDeleteInteresting article to say the least! What is earthly love? I'm intrigued by your use of the word hopeless here. For someone to classify a situation as being 'hopeless' surely infers that that person has decided that no hope can be obtained and therefore has ceased looking for it or believing it exists. However you say God can reinvigorate a hopeless situation - I'm curious by this also. If this is the case then it must mean that the hope was always there in the first place - baring in mind God is external to the situation you classify as hopeless. Which means that surely your blog post here is somewhat misguided. Interested to hear your thoughts.....
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks all your comments. About the last one: That is pretty much my point, that there always is hope for people that have decided something is hopeless and have ceased looking for hope of believing it exists.
ReplyDeleteGod can invigorate this but as can a human experience of love (contrary to the non-earthly so to say love of God) if we chose to let it influence us and open our eyes to hope.
I believe that hope can be given to people in many ways and that hopelessness is a state of mind and emotion people fall into and chose not to get out of. Yet there is always hope, so it is about opening the eyes of the individual to a more positive thinking and for me this was through experiencing the love of God.
Hope can always be regained and recovered, which is why I want to see more people regain hope if they are losing it. So I don't think this is misguided, maybe I wasn't too clear before. Does this make more sense? To answer your question about earthly love I mean love I basically mean human love.
What do you think, do you believe that hope can be recovered?
Also, thanks for the enouraging other stories you guys have posted and your honesty of how you got through a hopless time, very encouraging to read! There are amazing things in this world that can keep us going and for those that don't know God I hope that at least they would find something that will help them in life. However this won't last forever as one day we won't be and I am grateful to have an eternal hope and love in addition to the love I have in this life!
ReplyDeleteYes, Hope in God is something that is eternal and always available to us, because he is an Eternal God, who was and is and is to come. But there are times when we feel hopeless, and this feeling isn't necessarily true but nonetheless seem real as we cannot find a way out or find a solution to our problems. But God gives us a way out and gives us hope through Christ Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThis blog was a lovely reminder of where God has brought me from and what He is doing in people's lives is so encouraging to hear. Reading all these comments has also reminded me of the wonderful truth that what is impossible for humans, it is possible with God because He is so much more powerful, knowledgeable, greater, wonderful, sovereign and loving than we could ever be. Yet we can have a relationship with Him. God is good!
Thanks for that last comment! Glad you have been encouraged. Our reality is to be taken seriously so when we do feel hopeless it is real. I want to take the reality that we live in seriously, what we're feeling and going though, yet inviting the full reality of God into it!
ReplyDelete