Never Lose Hope

“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies” says Andy Dufresne in the movie Shawshank Redemption. 

I am a late comer to modern world, let alone the postmodern.  Until I was sixteen, I had never set my foot in any types of automobile, never seen a telephone or a television.  I had seen the radio in the village but could never figure it out how people could get inside that little box and sing and talk. 

I tell you, the Bible is a wonderful book.  It will not only open the door to eternal life; it will open every available door to life one can imagine.  An illiterate, abandoned, and mentally ill village boy found this book and in no time began to soar on wings like eagles. 

I was told that much of the world read this book in English.  I didn’t want to be left behind.  So, at the age of 20, I began to learn this beautiful language so that I could get all the knowledge I could lay my hands on about this amazing book called The Bible.  I bought a small pocket radio and was hooked in listening to BBC.  The news, the documentaries, the stories began to fascinate me, and in no time I could understand what the people were talking about in the radio.

 

It was in 1998 that I got to watch Shawshank Redemption.  Prior to that, I was told in Nepal that a Christian should not watch any movies; it was an unpardonable sin.  But after Shawshank Redemption; just like I had devoured all the biographies of great men and women of God that I could find in a Bible College library in Bangalore, my appetite for western movies was greatly heightened by this masterpiece.  Books and movies pulled me from the dark ages to the modern age and now I wonder what age we are living in.

“Hope is a good thing” says Dufresne to Red who had grown weary of deferred hope. Red had no idea that that would be the last time he would be talking to his friend inside that prison.  Eventually, after spending 40 years in prison, Red was released and makes to the Atlantic to meet his already escaped friend.  There in the Mexican beach, Red acknowledges that Hope is indeed a good thing to have in life.

Long before I knew about Hollywood movies, I had witnessed the power of hope in my life.  Hope had kept me alive throughout my troubled childhood and teenage years.  When my wife and I began our first church, we called it Hope Church. 

Movies and human stories may inspire us to hope in life.  But without experiencing the divine grace of God, we can lose that hope at any time.  People like Anthony Bourdain, Robin Williams, Marilyn Monroe, and the likes could not hang on to that hope.  Every year, hundreds of thousands of people in the developed world are taking their own lives.  Material possessions and spreading fame do not appear to be sufficient for us to hang on in life.  We need a God who can fill our emptiness the way he knows how. And the Bible is the book that leads us to this God.

Isaiah says, “Those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (40:31).

  

Therefore, my friends, if you feel tired and weary, listen to Jesus who says “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest”.  Ask God to give you the hope and the ability to hang on to that hope.  If a boy like me could find hope and enjoy life; you can do much more!