Hope Is the First DoseShembull

“Dare to Hope”

After my son died, my pastor told me that I needed to go to the book of Lamentations to find perspective.

And, so, I did.

Lamentations is a five-chapter poem that tells a terrible story: Jerusalem has been sacked by the Babylonians, and the first two chapters give a blow-by-blow account of the destruction of God’s temple, the pillaging of the city, and the despair of the people. There’s murder, rape, theft, and all manner of horrifying events.

In chapter 3 the writer (possibly the prophet Jeremiah) comes to a low point:

Peace has been stripped away,

and I have forgotten what prosperity is.

I cry out, “My splendor is gone!

Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!” (Lamentations 3:17-18, NLT)

Those words perfectly summed up my situation—everyone’s situation after TMT. No peace, no prosperity to be had in earthly accomplishment or wealth, the lost splendor of the beautiful family now broken, all the things we’d hoped for our son Mitch’s life now impossible, unspeakable bitterness, unforgettable awfulness.

But faced with the bitterness, physical affliction, and utter despair of his situation, the writer of Lamentations doesn’t give up.

Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this. (Verse 21)

What does the Lamenter remember? That God is good despite the terrible circumstances he and all of Jerusalem were facing.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness.

His mercies begin afresh each morning. (Verses 22-23)

Considering Jerusalem’s situation at the moment, there was no reason to be hopeful here. Things were objectively terrible. But he chooses to hope anyway. He realizes that if God allowed a problem to happen, then the only rational hope is that God can help him through it.

Hope requires action—remembering who God has been all along and will always be.

Recall some evidence of God’s faithfulness and mercy to you in the past. Can you believe he is still the same good and great God?