Hope
On December 17, 1927, while surfacing from a submerged run over the measured mile off Cape Cod near Provincetown, Massachusetts, a USS S-4 (SS-109) submarine was accidentally rammed by the Coast Guard destroyer Paulding. It sank immediately. Forty men were trapped aboard and facing what seemed to be near-certain death. A rescue operation was immediately undertaken. Heroic efforts were made to rescue the trapped crew members. Six known survivors in the forward torpedo room exchanged a series of signals with the rescuers by tapping on the hull. Near the end of the ordeal, the trapped men used the last available oxygen in the submarine and sent a morse-coded message. A deep-sea diver who was part of the rescue crew heard the tapping on the steel wall, and he spelled out the message, “Is there any HOPE?” He heard the same question repeatedly: “Is there any HOPE?” Captain Ernest King, the leader of the rescue team responded: “There is HOPE, everything possible is being done.” But unfortunately, the effort was thwarted by the weather. The rescue force could not salvage the six men. Despite the best efforts of the rescue team, all forty men aboard were lost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_S-4_(SS-109); https://ussnautilus.org/the-loss-of-uss-s-4-ss-109/ ‘HOPE’ was a crucial word which meant life for the unfortunate crew. No HOPE meant no life.
HOPE is the opposite of despair, and despair is the sense that things won’t change for the better, and nothing can be done to make any difference. In this fallen world, despair is real. I’ve experienced losing HOPE twice, first at my father’s deathbed, and then at my mother’s deathbed. As they drew their last breaths, I hoped for Jesus to come at that very moment so that they wouldn’t need to die. I didn’t want to lose them, and I wanted them to stay alive. That’s why I said, “Jesus, please, come right now.” My only HOPE was Jesus because He was the only answer to my desperation. I faced what King David had faced when he wrote in Psalm 71:5, “For You are my HOPE, O Lord GOD; [You are] my trust from my youth.” (New KJV).
Ellen White wrote in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, p, 572: “The inspired Paul directs Titus to give special instructions to the church of Christ, “that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” He says: “Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed HOPE, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” This blessed HOPE should also be ours in our journey of faith while waiting for the return of Jesus Christ.
It is said that we can live forty days without food, eight days without water, four minutes without air, but only a few seconds without HOPE. This adage is very true. Jesus is our HOPE, Jesus is our life; without Jesus, we shall all perish. We all face problems in life, but Jesus our HOPE will be with us all the way through. Annie Johnson Flint wrote a God’s promise: “God hath not promised skies always blue, flower-strewn pathways, all our lives through. God hath not promised sun without rain, joy without sorrow, peace without pain, but God hath promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love.” There is always HOPE in Jesus.
Hiskia Missah
Editor
