Enduring Hope for the DisillusionedSample

Bad news surrounds us, and it feels as though the frequency and volume of these stories are increasing. If headlines tell the whole story, then our world has every reason to lose hope.

In society, we see many monetizing and marketing their solutions to hopelessness and despair. Leadership gurus promise easy hacks to resolve our disappointments and deepest struggles. But our experience is that these solutions leave us utterly unsatisfied.

Cultural remedies point us to something we can discover or architect within ourselves. But we’ve reached a very different conclusion: within is the wrong place to look.

As we sought to understand what sustains a lifetime of faithful service and lasting hope, we asked a group of gritty, global leaders how they persevere despite challenging circumstances and an abundance of bad news. Almost always, these leaders describe beginning their service full of idealism, brimming with hopes, dreams, and a plan for how they might change the world. Sooner or later, they realize there is more complexity, nuance, and challenge than anticipated.

When expectations and experiences collide—as they inevitably will—disillusionment results. It’s painful and unsettling. No one wants to become disillusioned, but wrapped in the pain of disillusionment is a paradoxical gift. It’s an invitation we’ll spend the rest of this study exploring.

If anyone experienced disappointment and disillusionment, it would be the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah. Literally, nothing worked out as he hoped. Jeremiah and his contemporaries watched everything around them crumble. Their leaders failed them. Their city walls no longer protected them. Their security, safety, and certainty evaporated.

Their hope ran very thin. Many gave up on God. And no amount of positive thinking or inspirational Christian wall art promising “a hope and a future” would change their circumstances. Yet Jeremiah remained faithful and hopeful throughout his journey, and God’s promise of a hope and future remained true.

As Jeremiah describes, it’s possible to be “serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season” (Jeremiah 17:8, MSG).

We pray that the truth found in Scripture points you to the God of hope. To the God who sustained Jeremiah when the world imploded around him. To the God who will sustain you, too.

Hope is not lost.