Where is our Hope?

by Jose Barajas

I love the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption. It is based on a short story from one of my favorite writers when I was growing up, Stephen King. Andy Dufresne is imprisoned for killing his wife, even though he didn’t do it. After having spent two weeks in solitaire confinement for playing opera music over the prison loudspeakers, Andy is telling his fellow inmates how it was the two easiest weeks because of the music he had in his heart and mind. Him and Red, his best friend in prison, go back and forth saying, 

“Andy Dufresne : That's the beauty of music. They can't get that from you... Haven't you ever felt that way about music? 

Red : I played a mean harmonica as a younger man. Lost interest in it though. Didn't make much sense in here. 

Andy Dufresne : Here's where it makes the most sense. You need it so you don't forget. 

Red : Forget? 

Andy Dufresne : Forget that... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours. 

Red : What're you talking about? 

Andy Dufresne : Hope. 

Red: Hope is a dangerous thing!”

Moses in Deuteronomy Six says, 

“““Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (‭ESV‬‬)  

Hope can be a scary or a good thing depending on what it is your hoping in! Now hope isn’t a good business plan or even a good retirement plan, but hope can be good depending on what or who we trust with it, and especially when our hope is in God! Moses was telling the people to not only hope, but to write the word of God in their hearts, teach it, and also write it on their doorposts! Because we can say we hope or trust, but with no sense of obedience or remembrance, what good will it do us? Now to us that might seem dumb or not realistic, but that is because we have become dependent on technology and things to search for answers, rather than to truly know it or meditate on it, especially the things of God! I listen to my mom pray and recite prayers that she prays constantly throughout the day and though she is ninety three, she remembers without using books and guides! She has written the word in her heart and on her door posts and regardless of what comes at her, she will never deny her Lord! 

To  think that we would not know the word of God in our hearts and when we are left alone in our "solitary confinement" without the truth of His word, we will feel hopeless. This is where we as a people, a nation, a religion, as the world are going! If we no longer had bibles or access to His word on apps or books, would we know what we believed or would we be able to hope in anything, let alone Him? Well the day is coming when we won’t have that access and or truth at the tips of our hands and where will your trust and hope be? Will you be able to trust the Lord, let alone live with a hope that you will lose over time, because you didn’t write it on your "hearts" or "door posts", or teach it to your children? We can memorize idiotic songs and pledges to countries and ideologies that have so sense of God or have forgotten God. But we can’t even recite, let alone defend the gospel, because we don’t know the word or the truth of the word. Think about the same Israelites that Moses was talking to, and how they not only forgot the very God who led them out of their bondage, 

(side note: God didn't call Moses to remove the Israelites just from bondage, which is a picture of sin, but to WORSHIP Him. Exodus Three Eighteen says, "And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, 'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.'") 

but they went into rebellion and adultery to other gods and left the truth of Yahweh for images and gods of wood and stone for self gratification, rather than hoping and trusting in the real God! 

It’s a sad thing to think we know and believe in God when in reality, we just “play” god and church and not truly repent and know the things that, when left alone in the dark, where our heart, mind and soul, truly find peace and hope in? We believe that one day a week of going to church is enough to strengthen us or help us, or to only know those "happy" verses and post memes taken out of context. The enemy and his minions constantly know the word as as James says, “and they shudder!” Is our “faith based on the things we’ve learned and trusted thru Jesus or just our own desires and false hopes, false teachers and happy verses? Will we be like the Israelites as Moses warned later in chapter Six,  

““then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage‬ ‭(ESV‬‬) 

When life is easy and we have blessings, how easy it is to forget the Lord and that He is responsible for our blessings and think we don’t need Him, and how we will fall into bondage again and be left alone without hope! Let the music of Jesus fill your heart and remember only He can keep the music in your heart alive, for only in Him, is our melody good and correct and full of hope! May His word and His blood cover us as death passes over us and may the word be alive constantly is us, regardless of what the world throws at us, regardless of our circumstances, we should always praise the Lord; especially in our solitaire!”