Hope is powerful. Think about it for a few minutes and all of us can conjure up images of the power of hope. On this weekend after Veterans’ Day as we remember the contributions of men and women in our armed forces, we can also recall the many stories of prisoners of war who managed to survive seemingly insurmountable odds by hanging onto the hope that someday they’d be freed. Admiral Jim Stockdale was captured during the Vietnam War. Author Jim Collins tells of Stockdale’s story in his book, Good to Great. Responding to Collins’ question as to how he managed to survive, Stockdale says, "I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade." (underline mine) Imagine…taking that experience and turning it into the defining event of your life, an event for which you would not trade! Such is the power of hope.

Medical research has revealed the power of hope. Christian author and speaker, John Ortberg, refers to such research in his book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat." A study of 122 men who had suffered their first heart attack focused on each man’s degree of hopefulness and optimism versus despair and pessimism. Of the 25 men who were viewed as the most pessimistic and without hope, 21 died within eight years. Of the 25 most optimistic and hopeful, only six died within eight years. Ortberg goes on to note, "Loss of hope increased the odds of death more than 300 percent; it predicted death more accurately than any medical risk factor, including blood pressure, amount of damage to the heart, or cholesterol level." Then Ortberg adds in his own humorous way, "Better to eat Twinkies in hope than to eat broccoli in despair."

You’ve observed the power of hope in your own life, haven’t you? In the business world: someone fails to receive the hoped for promotion—and job performance goes down. Or in sports, a team is mathematically eliminated from contending for the title and their performance on the field suffers—or changes are made with an eye toward "next year" because there is no longer any hope in this year. We’re aware of the power of hope—in our own life experiences and in what we’ve observed.

The question is…What is the basis, the foundation for our hope? There are "good things" in life in which we have hope. We hope for business success, for example. Hope drives us toward achievement in business—towards goals in business, towards a promotion or something similar. But, what happens to our hope when we achieve success? What becomes our hope when we retire? And, especially, what happens to our hope when we fail to achieve that goal, fail to get that promotion? Parents have hope in the "good thing" of raising healthy kids and getting them educated. Where’s our hope when they graduate, when they establish their own careers and families? Athletic teams hope for success. We’ve already observed that performance levels often go down when the chance at a championship is gone—that hope is lost. However, even the winning of a championship affects hope. The joy is short-lived and a new pursuit begins. Or, the joy of winning doesn’t satisfy as much as we hoped for. Tom Landry, the long-time coach of the Dallas Cowboys described the little satisfaction derived from winning what was hoped for—the Cowboys first Super Bowl championship. "The overwhelming emotion," Landry said, "in a few days among the players was how empty that goal was. There must be something more." The pinnacle of success in the "good things" of life we hoped for proves underwhelming or unsatisfactory. Even more so, what happens to our hope when we fail in those areas? Hope is very powerful. It is also very vulnerable.

There is a hope, however, that isn’t vulnerable—a hope that doesn’t disappoint. God wants to give this hope to us, the greatest hope, and that is what the apostle Paul writes about in our Scripture passage this morning.

The hope Paul describes is a hope that doesn’t disappoint, but it is also a hard earned hope built upon suffering. It is hard earned, first of all, because Jesus had to suffer on the cross for it to be possible. That act changed our status with God. Now justified in God’s sight through faith in Jesus Christ—the topic we spoke about two weeks ago—we now stand in God’s grace. Paul says we have peace with God and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Previously, Paul said we all fall short of God’s glory. Now, Paul tells us, through Jesus Christ we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

There is, certainly, a future sense to the hope we have of the glory of God. Later in his letter to the Romans, Paul writes, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us," (8:18). We have hope that the present shortcomings or sufferings will be gone with a future eternity of glory in the presence of Almighty God.

However, this greatest hope is a present reality as well. That hope is based in growing in our faith, our lives more and more reflecting the glory that is Christ’s. And it is a hard-earned hope, first of all because Christ had to go to the cross for it to be possible, and secondly because it is honed on the difficult experiences of life—sufferings that lead to perseverance, which leads to character, which in turn leads to hope…a hope that doesn’t disappoint. It is a hope that is not dictated by life’s circumstances. Rather, it is built upon them.

It goes without saying that there will be "sufferings" in this life. Our life experiences clearly reveal that. Sometimes those sufferings are the result of our exercising our free will—something Paul writes about in the first three chapters of Romans. We make choices and do things that bring hardships to ourselves and others. We suffer. And there will be sufferings brought about because we live in a fallen world. God’s perfect creation has been distorted by sin and in a distorted creation there will be sufferings brought about by hurricanes striking a shoreline, tornadoes ripping through the Midwest, terminal diseases striking individuals. It goes without saying there will be suffering in this broken world. Yet, Paul says we are capable of rejoicing in our sufferings—not for our sufferings, but in the midst of our sufferings. How is that possible? It is possible by recognizing that it can lead to something positive.

First of all, it’s possible to rejoice in our sufferings because that is the only pathway to identify with Christ. Again, later in Romans, Paul writes, "we are co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory," (8:17). What was true for Christ is true for his followers—the pathway to glory is through suffering. In our suffering, we find greater identity with Christ. I have visited with people suffering terribly from painful, terminal illnesses who describe how their experience has brought them closer to Christ, recalling the suffering he endured for them. We can rejoice in our suffering if we acknowledge it as a pathway to greater identity with Jesus Christ.

Then, we can rejoice in our sufferings because difficulties lead to maturity. The key is in how we respond to difficulties, to suffering. Suffering leads to perseverance, or endurance. We cannot "endure" without suffering. Suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. The Greek word is "dokimas." Some pottery in the Middle East today is stamped with the word "dokimas" after it has been put through the fire and has survived intact and complete. Suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces a person of character—someone who has withstood the testing fire of difficulties. In their commentary on Romans, William Sanday and Arthur Headlam describe "dokimas" this way, appropriately on this Veterans’ Day weekend, "[Dokimas] is the temper of the veteran as opposed to that of the raw recruit." Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces veterans—character—and character produces…hope. If we will look for God in the midst of our sufferings, we will discover a hope that doesn’t disappoint. I believe if we will look for God in our sufferings, we will experience the outpouring of God’s love for us, the comforting presence of God’s Holy Spirit with us that produce a hope that doesn’t disappoint.

Larry Julian is author of a book entitled God is My Success, Transforming Adversity Into Your Destiny. One of the chapters in the book is on "Overcoming Pain." I suppose one could substitute the word suffering for pain. Julian suggests that we can choose to run from our pain—in which case I’d suggest there’s no opportunity to progress to perseverance, character and hope—or we can embrace our pain and discover what Julian describes as the Seven Hidden Blessings in pain. The blessings, and their possible outcomes described by Julian sound much like the journey from sufferings to hope. Julian cites his own experiences with pain—first running from it, then embracing it which led to: Blessing #1-Pain motivates us to seek God, with the possible outcome of growing closer to God. 2^nd Blessing-Pain clarifies our motives, driving us to take inventory of what is truly important to us and why, with the possible outcome of gaining greater clarity of purpose. 3^rd Blessing-Pain refines—the testing fire that produces "dokimas," with the possible outcome of getting our egos out of the way so we’re prepared to serve a greater good. 4^th Blessing-Pain defines us—Julian describes it as becoming the canvas upon which God the master painter paints, with the possible outcome of developing character (there’s that word again) that reflects Jesus Christ. 5^th Blessing-Pain teaches us what we need to learn, leading to the possible outcome of gaining wisdom and understanding. 6^th Blessing-Pain makes our lives richer as we experience the outcome of living fuller lives in appreciation of God’s gifts. In other words, surviving moments of pain leads to greater appreciation of times without pain. And, 7^th Blessing-Pain makes us better leaders as we develop compassion and understanding for others experiencing pain or loss. Are you able to find blessings in your pain and suffering and, therefore, rejoice in your suffering?

Nancy Guthrie had a daughter who was born with serious defects resulting in seizures that would eventually take her life. Her daughter, whom they named Hope, lived 199 days. During their journey, Nancy and her husband realized that while their faith gave them incredible strength during that time, it didn’t make the hurt any less, it didn’t take the pain away. Writing about that experience, Guthrie says, "Early on in my journey, I said to God, ‘Okay, if I have to go through this, then give me everything. Teach me everything you want to teach me through this. Don’t let this incredible pain be wasted in my life!’ She continues, "God allows good and bad into our lives and we can trust him with both. Trusting God when the miracle does not come, when the urgent prayer gets no answer, when there is only darkness—this is the kind of faith God values most of all." (Holding On to Hope, Tyndale, 2002)

In all these writings and discussions about pain and suffering, it appears that we have a choice in the matter. We can choose to be pessimistic or optimistic. We can curse God or search for God. We can grumble through it or rejoice in it. We can run from it or embrace it. If we would seek God in the midst of our sufferings, walk with God through our pain, we can find the strength to persevere through it, and perseverance refines our character so we more reflect Jesus Christ, and such character develops hope, the greatest hope there is, the hope that God wants to give us, a hope that doesn’t disappoint.