For Endurance, Encouragement, and Hope

“Change and decay in all around I see.” Those words are from a hymn beloved by many: Abide With Me. When we look around, those words ring true. Our small towns and counties are shrinking and aging. People are confused whether they’re men or women. Children are adopting animal personas. Inflation has been crazy and now we’re entering into a recession. Our Christian churches are rapidly closing or getting smaller every year. In many ways it’s easy to be depressed and pessimistic about the future. 

 I think it’s obvious enough to most anyone with their eyes open that things are becoming worse rather than better, and so what I’ve said comes as no surprise. The question then is: how ought we to respond to all of this change and decay? For some people the response is anger and bitterness, to complain about everything incessantly. For others  the response is to ignore all of the problems and pretend that they don’t exist. But for many the answer is simply depression, a gloomy melancholy manifesting itself as indifference and sloth. Anger, ignorance, and depression are all natural responses to our problems. However, just because those reactions come naturally does not mean that those are the best responses.

St. Paul wrote in Romans 15: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” When you read through the scriptures you see that we are not living in unprecedented times, but what we are experiencing now has been felt by many of God’s faithful people throughout the history of the world. This means that what was written in the scriptures for people in former times applies to us as well today. The wisdom and instruction of God’s holy Word gives us endurance, encouragement, and hope.

Reading through the Old Testament it’s a constant refrain of decay and renewal. Over the course of a few generations the faith and morality of people declined and thus their nation decayed, until a new generation arose which would cast down the idols and restore faith in the true God. The same thing is taking place in our nation right before our eyes.

I don’t know if we are currently collapsing or we have already collapsed, but I know that we are somewhere in the midst of collapse. But what that means is that now is the time for renewal. God’s church will never be stamped out from the earth, since a remnant will always remain until Christ returns on the last day. He promised. Thus, these are hugely exciting days for us Christians because these are the days when God is rebuilding and restoring His church here among us and through us. By no means are these easy days, but they are very hopeful days, so be encouraged!

When we look around at the decay around us, we see that Christianity has the answers that the world needs. For instance, the loneliness and despair felt by so many is answered in Christ who has come to abide among us and draws us together in Him. The church is a community founded in Christ where His Word is heard, we are adopted into Him through Baptism, and we are made one with Him through the sacrament of Holy Communion. After many people come to their senses about this transgender stuff and try to cope with the lifelong effects of their hormonal treatments and physical amputations, Christ is He who makes them whole again and shall restore their bodies to them in the resurrection. For all of us, our Lord Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and in Him we have everlasting hope. Our sin and shame have been crucified with Christ on the cross, so that each and every day we are made new in Him through the forgiveness of our sins.

Dear Christians, don’t lose hope! Don’t let your hearts be filled with bitterness, ignorance, nor depression. Instead, look to Christ, pick up that holy book and read the words of the only true God for you. See that there is hope, there is always hope! God is He who makes all things new, even you, even the world around you, and especially the paradise He is preparing for you. So open the Good Book and see that God is at work in you and around you.

Godspeed!

Rev. John Henry Koopman