Unable to find hope? Read Revelation 7:17
Revelation 7:17: "For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. And he will guide them to the springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Tell me you find nothing for which to hope, and I will point you to Revelation 7:17. Say that life is a continuation of suffering, misery and pain ending with death, and I will try to help explain what St. John learned when the Holy Spirit revealed to him the kingdom of God in the book of Revelation.
The first part is the suffering that most of us know nothing about. That itself is cause for rejoicing. Jesus is speaking to those whose daily way of life was to search for food and water to provide for their families and themselves.
We who think of the sun as a delightful escape from the winter blahs and the opportunity to bronze our skin cannot imagine the harmful effect it has on those who constantly endure its heat night and day.
We do understand what happens when leaders fail to live up to expectations. We have lived through the failures of those in high places who prove to be unable or unwilling to live by the morals and principles one would expect from professed Christians.
Identifying with pain
The Lamb of God is our true leader -- the one who never asks from others what he himself had not been willing to assume. He who suffered the agony on the cross on our behalf can identify with each of us who in some form or other has endured pain, oppression, rejection, anguish or despair. He is at the right hand of the throne of God, yet he who is God is also a human being in every way. Nothing human is foreign to him.
Indeed, he gives meaning to suffering. Those who endure to the end will be rewarded with a life more invigorating and alive than any experienced in this world. When he "guides them to the springs of the water of life," we understand that the Holy Spirit will be in us, filling our hearts with divine presence. It will be water different from that which makes up most of our bodies, because this water once drunk never will be sipped again.
Wiping away the tears
Best of all, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. Why do we cry -- because somebody we loved has died? No tissue needed here. We will be joined to all who have gone before us to their rest: grandparents, parents, siblings, relatives we had forgotten about, as well as those who had some influence in our lives.
Or do we cry because we have been harmed or injured by somebody? Surely the joy of reunion with our beloved, and more significant, with God, offsets any temporal injuries to our vaunted pride here in this world.
Do we cry for ourselves and our missed opportunities? The Good Shepherd will show us that while we had been wandering about earth swaying from one disappointment to another, what we had thought to be failures, may in fact have been conditioning us to crush pride, stubborn will and self-reliance into people of God who learned to trust in the Lord's plan for our lives and future.
To trust in God is like having faith that water will support your body when you first learn to swim. You must learn to commit yourself to the Lord and have confidence that what he has in store for you far surpasses whatever ideas you may have for yourself.
When that happens, you will discover such love in your heart that you will be among the blessed ones in who St. Paul's words "bears all things, believes in all things, hopes all things, and endures all things." (1 Corinthians 13:7).
The Rev. Daniel Rohan is pastor of St. Mark Orthodox Church in Liberty.