NO HOPE BUT GOD
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)
