In his
book Through the Valley of the Kwai, Scottish officer Ernest Gordon
wrote of his years as a prisoner of war during World War II. The 6′ 2″ man
suffered from malaria, diphtheria, typhoid, beriberi, dysentery, and jungle
ulcers, and the hard labor and scarcity of food quickly plunged his weight to
less than 100 pounds.
The
squalor of the prison hospital prompted a desperate Ernest to request to be
moved to a cleaner place—the morgue. Lying in the dirt of the death house, he
waited to die. But every day, a fellow prisoner came to wash his wounds and to
encourage him to eat part of his own rations. As the quiet and unassuming Dusty
Miller nursed Ernest back to health, he talked with the agnostic Scotsman of
his own strong faith in God and showed him that—even in the midst of
suffering—there is hope.
The hope
we read about in Scripture is not a vague, wishy-washy optimism. Instead,
biblical hope is a strong and confident expectation that what God has promised
in His Word He will accomplish. Tribulation is often the catalyst that produces
perseverance, character, and finally, hope (Rom. 5:3-4).
Seventy
years ago, in a brutal POW camp, Ernest Gordon learned this truth himself and
said, “Faith thrives when there is no hope but God” (see Rom. 8:24-25).
“Faith thrives when there
is no hope but God”. (RBC)
