Religion: A Pastor Ponders

Hope

By Pastor William Jenkins

September 5, 2007

Roman mythology attempts to explain why bad things happen in the world. In their explanation Jupiter sent woman down to earth endowed with every charm and named her Pandora, “all the blessings”. In the hand of Pandora the gods had placed a box that she was forbidden to open. Overcome with curiosity, one day she lifted the lid on the box. Immediately there escaped from the box every conceivable curse to man’s body and mind. In a flash these curses scattered themselves far and wide throughout the earth.

Pandora hastened to replace the lid on the box, but noticed one thing left in the bottom of the box. After all the curses had escaped from Pandora’s box, there was left in it the one thing that could be equal to them… HOPE. Before she replaced the lid, Pandora released hope.

Hope is the greatest power available for the tasks of everyday living. It is the antidote for despair whenever life takes a bad turn. Lord Byron wrote concerning hope, “Be thou the rainbow to the storms of life!” It is this rainbow that the ancient prophet Habakkuk had in mind as he closed his prophetic book.

I continue to be drawn to Habakkuk during hard times. We might interpret his prophecy differently today: “Even if the stock market crashes, even if no jobs are available, even if there is no food in the supermarket, no gas at the stations and no one has any money, even if my child is ill and my cancer continues to grow worse, even when the walls come crashing in and my marriage falls apart, yet will I hope in God.” Hope in God gives us rebound potential during the tying times of life.

League City United Methodist Church is located at 1411 Main Street (FM 518), one block east of Interstate 45. For information, call the church offices at 281-332-1557 or visit the website at

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