Christian Living
Say, What About Hope?
© 2007
by
Stephen A. Peterson
Faith, hope and love—Christians throughout their lives hear and read about faith and how wonderful a gift is received from God when they Lord is accepted. Christians also learn the value of unconditional love. That it is another of the greatest of God’s gifts. But what about hope? Many writers, it would seem, do not want to or cannot tackle hope. However, it is hope that is a wonderful and mysterious gift from God. How handicapped the Christian would be if one should ever lose it!!
A plethora of studies have been conducted by numerous psychologists, medical doctors and sociologists concerning with what humanity now refer to as “The Holocaust” when Nazi Germany insidiously executed what it considered its undesirables. From the facts of this period of human history, these specialists concluded that when humankind has hope humanity is capable of enduring incredible burdens and cruel punishment.
Of all the Nazi death camps none was deadlier than Auschwitz. It was reported that more than 1.5 million people from all over captured European nations were imprisoned there during World War II. These men, women and children were subjected to long months of harsh treatment, poor food, forced labor and live, anaesthetized experiments so cruel it was and continues to be hard to image. When this death camp was liberated, the survivors who had been there for any time were almost all sick. But there were a few who suffered just as cruel treatment but demonstrated slight physical damage from their hellish months of imprisonment.
What were found to be important were the post liberation interviews. Interviews with surviving men, women and children who could understand revealed no mental or physical superiority among the Auschwitz survivor. What was found was a far above average ability to hope. During their suffering, they composed songs of hope; drew pictures of family members, happy times and of a positive future; pictures of spouses they hoped to marry or to be with after their imprisonment; pictures of family members. Some of the prisoners even planned to re-unite with each other in the hope of going into business upon gaining their freedom.
In summary, it is believed hope sustained these men, women and children not only in Auschwitz but in other death camps under Nazi rule but also under Japanese control as well.
What may be learned from this? That hope, as written in the Bible, is the twin sister of faith. Hope is wishing for something to come true; faith is believing it will come true with or without facts to back up what is believed and the willingness to sustain it against all odds! So when you with strongly enough, and firmly enough, and continue to hope against even the naysayers, the impossible becomes possible!!
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