Many of us started the year 2020 with hopes and expectations. As the year progressed, the gap between what we expected or hoped for and what we were experiencing stretched as wide as the Grand Canyon. Family, church, and school life have been lived on an ambiguous and uncertain timeline. We wonder, maybe things will change by Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. The on-demand culture collided with cancel culture, and perhaps it left you feeling weary, disillusioned, or sick. Solomon placed his finger on the root of this heart sickness, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Proverbs 13:12). When days ran into weeks and weeks into months, our hearts were infected with anxiety, fear, and discouragement. When our hopes are crushed, it’s as if our hearts are crushed.
During this year, my mind has drifted back to the Stockdale paradox. This paradox is named for Admiral Jim Stockdale, who was the highest-ranking military officer in North Vietnam’s notorious Hanoi Hilton. He was imprisoned there for seven years and was violently tortured more than 20 times. His story embodies the tension of maintaining faith while at the same time confronting the harsh reality of current circumstances. Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great,” was curious about what enabled the admiral to persevere with hope. When he asked him why he refused to give up, Stockdale said, “I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only I would get out, but also I would prevail in the end.”
In these days of death, let your heart’s desire be fixated on the life and renewal that can come only from Christ.
Collins goes on to ask, “Who didn’t make it out?” “Oh, that’s easy,” he said, “the optimists. They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they would say, ‘We will be out by Easter or Thanksgiving,’ and then it would be Christmas again. They died of a broken heart.”
Admiral Stockdale’s gaze is heartening; he looked to the end of the story. Not just an earthly release, but rather the freedom that awaits us in our eternal home. Solomon wisely redirects us to the cure for our temporal heart sickness. We can’t endure by self-will or rugged determinism. The Tree of Life creates the life-giving bookends of the Big Story of the Bible in Genesis and Revelation. It points to the promise of His presence, where all things will be made new.
In these days of death, let your heart’s desire be fixated on the life and renewal that can come only from Christ. No more waiting, tears, sickness, or death. Holding the hope of our faith in Jesus Christ in tension with the hard places of the Fall is our current calling. Finding hope and life has everything to do with where we fix our gaze. The psalmist reminds us that even though we may be tempted to look in other places, “my only hope is in You” (Psalm 39:7). He is our ultimate Life-giver, and Great Physician. And as the hymn writer reminds us, weak, wounded, heartsick pilgrims, Jesus stands ready to save you. He is full of pity that is joined with power. It is too early to give up; He is able!
Karen Hodge serves as the coordinator for CDM Women’s Ministry, where she connects women and churches to one another and to sound resources.