Hope

"The next day, as gale force winds continued to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard. The following day they even took some of the ship's gear and threw it overboard. The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone." Acts 27:18-20

As the hour quickly dissipated, my frustration level had peaked and I was done. The escape room had beat us. We had no clue giver to help us get unstuck and we had twisted ourselves up in all the circles in which we had been running. Simply put, all hope was gone. No amount of positive thinking or picking ourselves up by the bootstraps was going to move us forward. 

All the people on this boat with Paul had reached a similar place where they felt completely and utterly without hope. None of their seaman skills could save them from the teeth of this storm that had absolutely crushed their spirits. It was there at the end of their ropes where they were finally willing to hear and do what Paul told them. 

Suffocated. Endlessly falling. Numb. Unrelenting darkness. Hopelessness can be described in many ways and none of them are positive. It causes people to behave in unpredictable ways and most of them are negative. What are you doing to feed hope in your life? The writer of Hebrews tells us that our hope is a sure and steadfast anchor for our soul. With Jesus, storms come and go, but our hope does not.