Losing a job is hard. Losing your home is hard. Losing your faith to the point where you have lost all hope is worse! Have you ever been at a place in your life where you lost all hope? Where you wondered what was going to happen tomorrow, next week, or next month? Have you ever been at a place where you wondered if you had a reason to go on living?

I have! It was a really dark place to be. I was three months shy of my 23rd birthday, lying in a hospital bed at a field hospital in Vietnam. I had been in and out of consciousness, but on this day, I saw my twin brother walk past my bed and approach a doctor.

I heard him ask which bed I was in. He had been searching for me all over the ward. Not knowing I was conscious, the doctor told him I was going to die and there was nothing else they could do for me. When he asked where I was, the doctor and a nurse led him back to my bed where they stopped. My face, battered, swollen, and black and blue did not reflect that my eyes were open. I watched as he stood there for several moments until he recognized me. He fell at the end of my bed weeping.

I suddenly felt a fear grip me greater than anything I experienced on the battlefield. I didn’t want to die. I remember closing my eyes and praying in my heart, “God — if there really is a God — if you let me live, I’ll do anything You want.” God did, I didn’t. Many of us in desperation have made a promise to surrender if God gets us out of the trouble we got ourselves into. When the prayer is answered, we go on as if nothing happened.

All across our nation and around the world, fear is running rampant. We have nonstop news with the number of infections of COVID-19 and the death toll every day, all day. We’re told to stay at home, away from jobs, family, friends, church, and a paycheck. Stay away from church, the one place we normally draw hope from? How are we going to pay the bills or feed our family? Fear takes over and we lose all hope that things will change.

Last Sunday, we celebrated Easter, the day we Christians believe Jesus, the Son of God, rose from the grave. Easter offers HOPE. Hope that our life is not only the days we live on this planet but so much more. Easter means no matter how bad things seem, God has an eternal plan for our lives.

The greatest gift He gave us was hope. The kind of hope that floods over you while sheltered in a bathroom hearing banging on the windows as debris from the tornado going over your home hits. As the wind roars, you know if this is your appointed time, on Easter of all days, there is no fear of death because God has your life in His hands. It’s not what I had hoped for, but when the storm passed, I was eternally grateful. Where is your hope?

Something to think about?