Since coming to India, a common theme among our group has been that of hope. When we sit down to discuss our experiences and internal struggles with each other, I often hear the issue of hope brought up. "Where is hope in desolate places? When we see horrible poverty and deprivation how do we not give in to the overwhelming feeling that God is not here, that there is no hope? Why can't we feel God's hope sometimes?"
In high school I remember many students writing English class papers on books like Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle (sad books with bad endings and worse middles), touting the idea that hope is futile, that it simply gives false life and hurts people all the more when it lets them down. They said it would be better not to hope at all, at least then you would not be crushed when hope dies.
That philosophy (I suppose something akin to fatalism) could be easily applied to life in India. We are currently reading a book about the lives of sex workers in Kolkata and it strikes me how powerless women in this society are. When they are abandoned, women have little legal recourse to solicit financial support from their wayward husbands to feed or clothe or educate their children. When a woman is abandoned by her husband and kicked out by her in-laws she is left alone in a society that has taught her only dependency on others, on men, a society that will not pay her an equal wage or even offer her many of its jobs, simply based on her gender. In these cases many times the only way for her to feed her children is to enter the sex trade, or if she is lucky enough to find other work, she must toil at it day and night, neglecting the nurturing of her children for whom she works so hard. To many eyes there seems to be no hope in these situations.
However, in the face of these doubts, I found myself unable to relate to the sense of hopelessness many of my peers have combated. Not that I am not touched and angered by the plight of those around me here, but I simply have never looked at these situations and thought to myself "Where is God? Why isn't he here?" I asked myself why that was. There is every reason to reject hope and embrace despair in such an overpowering society of poverty and oppression. I had to answer myself, "I don't see hope in those terms, as though when it is unseen it is not there. I see hope as a fact, not a feeling."
I will have to explain this rather outlandish statement further, with some unpacking of my personal flavor of belief. You see, in my eyes, even when my God is unknown and unwanted by the people on the streets of Kolkata, even when it seems he is abandoning his children who are hungry and sick and dying, in my heart of hearts I know that he has already died for them, that before they know his name he loved them enough to sacrifice himself so that they could have hope- seen or unseen. In my eyes, the fact of Jesus's love and of his death and resurrection means that no man woman or child can ever be without hope, whether they know it or not. Romans 5:1-6 supports my belief in this:
"Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
Hebrews 6:17-20 Also states God's undying and unshakable promise to redeem us, and validate our hope in Him:
"17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
Praise the Lord! To me these verses scream that even in the darkest places it is impossible to be without hope! Jesus has entered in before all men, and is saving them before they even know he is the one to do it! Hope in worldly things is indeed fickle and will let us down, just as all of those high school English papers said, but Jesus' unseen hope is a fact for all human beings, and it cannot fail.
Last night one of our close Indian friends shared her troubles with us. We are so blessed that she feels comfortable enough with us to share her fears and trials when she says she has few people to listen, few fellow Indians who will understand her troubles. She is not a sex worker, but she finds herself trapped by many of the same issues of lack of value in her work as a woman, and the dearth of legal recourse she has to find support for her children. She works constantly, and has recently been faced with more challenges of emotional and physical health than she feels she can handle. But we still praise God that her faith is so strong. Her life is already a testament to God's triumph over evil and injustice. We were glad to rejoice with her in our certainty that God is caring for her, that his hope is with her in the darkest of times, and that he will bring her help and comfort when she calls. We cannot see these things in the present moment, but as Hebrews 11 states "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". Praise God! We are certain! We are assured in our hope, because Jesus' life, death, and resurrection means that our hope is a fact, not a feeling.
In high school I remember many students writing English class papers on books like Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle (sad books with bad endings and worse middles), touting the idea that hope is futile, that it simply gives false life and hurts people all the more when it lets them down. They said it would be better not to hope at all, at least then you would not be crushed when hope dies.
That philosophy (I suppose something akin to fatalism) could be easily applied to life in India. We are currently reading a book about the lives of sex workers in Kolkata and it strikes me how powerless women in this society are. When they are abandoned, women have little legal recourse to solicit financial support from their wayward husbands to feed or clothe or educate their children. When a woman is abandoned by her husband and kicked out by her in-laws she is left alone in a society that has taught her only dependency on others, on men, a society that will not pay her an equal wage or even offer her many of its jobs, simply based on her gender. In these cases many times the only way for her to feed her children is to enter the sex trade, or if she is lucky enough to find other work, she must toil at it day and night, neglecting the nurturing of her children for whom she works so hard. To many eyes there seems to be no hope in these situations.However, in the face of these doubts, I found myself unable to relate to the sense of hopelessness many of my peers have combated. Not that I am not touched and angered by the plight of those around me here, but I simply have never looked at these situations and thought to myself "Where is God? Why isn't he here?" I asked myself why that was. There is every reason to reject hope and embrace despair in such an overpowering society of poverty and oppression. I had to answer myself, "I don't see hope in those terms, as though when it is unseen it is not there. I see hope as a fact, not a feeling."
I will have to explain this rather outlandish statement further, with some unpacking of my personal flavor of belief. You see, in my eyes, even when my God is unknown and unwanted by the people on the streets of Kolkata, even when it seems he is abandoning his children who are hungry and sick and dying, in my heart of hearts I know that he has already died for them, that before they know his name he loved them enough to sacrifice himself so that they could have hope- seen or unseen. In my eyes, the fact of Jesus's love and of his death and resurrection means that no man woman or child can ever be without hope, whether they know it or not. Romans 5:1-6 supports my belief in this:
"Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly."
Hebrews 6:17-20 Also states God's undying and unshakable promise to redeem us, and validate our hope in Him:
"17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek."
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| Victoria Memorial, a place of peace in the stormy city |
Last night one of our close Indian friends shared her troubles with us. We are so blessed that she feels comfortable enough with us to share her fears and trials when she says she has few people to listen, few fellow Indians who will understand her troubles. She is not a sex worker, but she finds herself trapped by many of the same issues of lack of value in her work as a woman, and the dearth of legal recourse she has to find support for her children. She works constantly, and has recently been faced with more challenges of emotional and physical health than she feels she can handle. But we still praise God that her faith is so strong. Her life is already a testament to God's triumph over evil and injustice. We were glad to rejoice with her in our certainty that God is caring for her, that his hope is with her in the darkest of times, and that he will bring her help and comfort when she calls. We cannot see these things in the present moment, but as Hebrews 11 states "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". Praise God! We are certain! We are assured in our hope, because Jesus' life, death, and resurrection means that our hope is a fact, not a feeling.
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