During the holidays, two of my old time friends came from out of state to visit us. We had a great time together, reflecting our old memories in the past. Noticing the crawled grey hair on each other, we couldn’t help but sigh that time really flies since we haven’t seen each other for quite a few years.
Yes, time really flies! The year of 2013 is in its last two days. During the year, we saw many tragic events, such as natural calamities, random school/college shootings, Boston bombing, NSA snooping program leaked, etc. They result in many turmoil situations to the country and to people who were affected. Facing with these situations, we could easily get discouraged and may wonder “Is the end of this world near”? Bible told us that these may be signs to the day of Lord’s second coming but the exact date is not known. Therefore, the author of the book of Hebrews encouraged us to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful 堅守我們所承認的指望，不至搖動‧因為那應許我們的是信實的 (Hebrews 10:23). This reminds me of a short story I heard recently from a radio broadcast. It says like this:
“In 18th century, there was a research to find out how animals can survive from drowning. A group of researchers put a batch of rats into a pool of water to observe their behavior. Researchers discovered that the rats would survive 18 minutes, in average, before being drowned. In order to find its root cause of death, they did autopsy on some of them and find that all their blood was in their intestines. The 2nd test the researchers did was to put another batch of rats into water. This time the researchers would scoop out the rat which is appeared to be at his last breath, they would then put him back again a minute later. The average survival time for the 2nd batch of rats is 36 hours. Subsequent autopsy of these rats found that all rats’ blood was in their muscle. The researchers conclude that the 2nd batch of rats was exhausted to death instead of being fear to death as the 1st batch. This tells us that the 2nd batch of rats, which have experienced one rescue, held down their hope to be rescued again.”
This story teaches us that hope is a key factor to keep the rats alive and focused – when they have the hope to be rescued, they persevere. In our journey of life, we may encounter various difficult situations. If we are easily being discouraged and loose heart, we would experience the fear syndrome as the 1st batch of rats did – just give up without a fight. Since we have been saved by our Lord once, we should not have forgotten that He is faithful and gracious, because Bible repeatedly told us so. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, let’s encourage one other and hold unswervingly to the hope we profess in the year of 2014.
May our Lord guide you and protect you as always, in 2014!
Disclaimer: The sharing is pure from my personal view; therefore, please don’t take it to be absolute. Thanks.