Graduate school was where I learned about and loved the writings of Victor Frankl, in particularly what he had to say about hope. Having spent time in Auschwitz, his words carried more weight than someone who just bought a lottery ticket. He made the case that those who survive desperate circumstances aren’t necessarily the physically strongest, but rather those who find some meaning in living despite trials. And meaning can be found through using creativity. It can be found in helping another person. It can be found in determining our own attitude about circumstances around us. People who survive are those who hold on to hope. You might say hope is the glitter on a dark painting. It is jewelry worn with work boots.

The times of this uncertain world of ours are not a first or second or tenth to face an unsettled present and future. We are so far from alone in our anxiousness and confusion, it would be comical if not for the plane crashes that have become weekly breaking news.

To wit: The newly freed Israelites began a long tutorial on courage when they crossed through a sea which God’s invisible hand alone held back. I wonder who was more nervous – those in the front or those at the end of the line?

Christians from Peter and James to Polycarp and Tyndale faced persecution and death from emperors, kings, and bishops. I’ve always been touched by Polycarp’s response to the captors who came to get him. Would I have ordered a meal for them while I spent an hour in my room praying? I understand the prayer. The meal? I don’t know.

The pilgrims lived through a rough and uncertain voyage to a land they’d never seen.

Corrie Ten Boom and Anne Frank faced deprivations and uncertainty and horror.

Israeli citizens were kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed.

Lately, too, some folks closer to home have met with trials and deaths of loved ones in East Palestine, Ohio; Lahaina and Maui; western North Carolina and the Appalachians; and the Pacific Palisades.

I’m leaving gaps, of course; gaps you can fill in yourself, remembering that not all uncertain times are on the news.

However, there is much good with the bad these days. We are watching an effort to restore (rather than reform) our government to its original state. It’s long, long overdue. We are watching more people turn to Christ. I anticipate changes in our nation’s food. We will see. We get to decide where we focus. We get to determine whether to weep or sing.

Romans 5 reminds us that we can experience peace despite tribulations, and those troubles provide a way for us to gain patience along with experience. And hope. Glorious, enduring hope.

Hope. It is the sparkling jewelry to our faith’s work boots. They, both of them, get us through the uncertainty of various threats, fires, floods, and more. I hope to see you, my friend, if not on the other side, next to me as we travel through.

Images: pexels-thatguycraig000-1467574.jpg; parting_red_sea-apha-141121.jpg; pexels-karolina-grabowska-4750319.jpg; pexels-pixabay-69934.jpg; pexels-pixabay-248077.jpg; Ephesians 6:10-17