Hope

And he said to him, “Do not fear, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you. Saul my father also knows this.”1 Samuel 23:17

When I was at my absolute lowest, having destroyed everything I loved with my drug addiction, I experienced tremendous despair. I knew my life was over and I knew it was all my fault. I felt hopeless. It was in that place though, where I had nothing, that I began to learn faith. Any sense of self-sufficiency was stripped away, and in my utter helplessness and desperation, I turned desperately to God. He was all I had. That was what it took for me to begin to truly rely on God. It was in my faith, that I found hope for the future. As I followed God, I began to believe that life could and would be better. And what choice did I have? Sure, I could have pressed on, going my way alone. But my way had proven to be complete disaster, and so, I followed God. In the disaster it was hard to see anything good coming out of it, but in practicing faith, I found hope for my future.

In following God, there is always hope. That’s the message of today’s passage. In the story, as David continued to run from King Saul, Jonathan (Saul’s son) found David and comforted him. Jonathan reminded his friend of God’s promise – that David would be king. Though David feared for his life, and though all seemed bleak, Jonathan reminded David that there was hope for the future. David had faith in God and found hope in his faith. And what choice did he have? He had nothing else upon which he could rely. Paradoxically it was probably only in that place of despair that David could learn to truly rely on God.

I don’t enjoy trials. No one likes pain. It’s often only in the trial though, that God gets through to me. I can’t practice bravery when there’s nothing to be afraid of. And I can’t learn faith when there’s nothing to doubt. I may not like it, but it’s often only in times of loss and despair, when I feel hopeless, that I truly turn to follow God. In doing so, I find my hope in him, which is where I should have been looking for it all along. Following God doesn’t mean that all my life problems are immediately resolved. Following God means that I can know joy and peace in believing that things will one day be better, either in this life or the next.