The Place of Hope

“Is He Worthy?” is a song written by Andrew Peterson that has become one of my favorites. You can find the song here. It expresses the reality of the utter brokenness of the world in lyrics like these:

Do you feel the world is broken?
We do.
Do you feel the shadows deepen?
We do.
Do you wish that we could see it all made new?
We do.

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These are definite realities we see in the world around us. We don’t have to look too hard, too deep, or too far to see the extreme, pervasive brokenness of this world. It is true at any given moment in history, but at certain times, we see the brokenness more clearly than at others. In some situations, we see this universal brokenness so distinctly that we can not ignore it, nor can we keep it from dominating our thoughts. The brokenness of the world is always equally real, but at certain times it is overwhelmingly more clear. 

When brokenness overwhelms, discouragement, despair, and hopelessness can be the result. Sometimes we see the problems, but we have no idea how to solve them. Sometimes we know the issues, but we don’t know what to do about them. We know the questions, but not the answers, and sometimes we don’t even know the right questions. There are times when we know the problems are deep and complex, even to the point of us thinking we can never understand them, much less solve them. We know it is broken, we know we are broken, we wish it could all be made new, but that is all we know. And the hopelessness of that is debilitating.

Peterson’s song doesn’t end there, however, and neither should our thoughts, feelings, and perspective. The song also contains these lyrics which are words of hope in the midst of the despair of brokenness:

But do you know that all the dark won’t stop the light from getting through?
We do.
Is a new creation coming?
It is.
Is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst?
It is.
Does the Father truly love us?
He does.
Does the Spirit move among us?
He does.
And does Jesus, our Messiah hold forever those He loves?
He does.
Does our God intend to dwell again with us?
He does.

The song ends with the reminder from the book of Revelation that tells us that Jesus is worthy of all blessing, honor, and glory, because He rules, reigns, and has won the ultimate victory over all the brokenness of the world. This is the Biblical message that repudiates despair and hopelessness. The deep, complex, unsolvable issues of our world are not the final word, nor the end of all things. There is hope for us, even as we face hopeless situations. There is a place of hope even for those hopeless situations. It is too deep, too complex, too broken for us. But it is not too broken for Jesus. He is the Place of Hope.