This weekend in worship we are going to be speaking of hope; what it is, what it isn't, and why it is so important to us within the Christian faith.

In all the research and reading this week, I was reminded of my experiences years ago when I was in flight training for the Navy.  When I finished the first segment of the training, the Navy sent our entire class out into the desert of California.  There, we were to "survive" for several days.  Actually, because none of us were even close to being a "Bear Grylls", it really was more of an exercise in starvation.  At the end, they put us in a staged POW camp, to teach us what it was like to be hungry and exposed to such a ruthless environment.  It was an experience I have never forgotten.

I learned many things during those days of "captivity", but one of the things that remains with me is the importance of hope.  People can make it through just about anything when there is something to hope for.  That is also why the people who run those prison camps do everything in their power to take that hope away.  They know, as countless people through the centuries, that if you can remove hope from someone, their spirit and fight soon wither away.
This is why hope is so central to the Christian faith.  Corrie Ten Boom used to say, "There is no pit so deep that he is not deeper still."  By that she meant that there is no situation in life that is hopeless, and the believer in Christ has the vision to see that hope and hold on to it specifically.  This weekend, come join us in worship as we speak more specifically to this gift of God we call hope.  We simply cannot live without it.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Pastor Pete