By A. Ray Lee

Columnist 

When I was a young minister serving as pastor of a small church I volunteered as a hospice chaplain. To better prepare myself for the position I enrolled in a Clinical Pastoral Education class being conducted in one of the hospitals in Birmingham. I was able to interact with hospital and medical personnel and participate in intensive seminars led by trained staff and counselors. Under their guidance and supervision, as a matter of practical application, I was assigned to give spiritual aid and comfort to patients in CICU. At the time I had no idea how important that particular assignment would be for future ministry.    

With hospice, I faced the challenge of bringing hope to critically ill individuals when there seemed to be no hope. The hospice team and I as chaplain could not change the final outcome, but we could change how the end of life was managed. Our goal was to compassionately minister to all their needs. We could provide hope for them. They would not face the end alone. Ironically many years later a similar team would minister to my family as we traveled with Effie in her final days. Their presence with us was an invaluable help. 

Without a doubt, my experiences in CPE and interacting with hospice patients greatly influenced the nature of my ministry. My preaching slowly transitioned from being centered in the here-after and began to deal more with the here and now. I began to see my congregants not just as souls to be saved but as struggling individuals searching for hope in the present. Many of them were dealing with disappointments, rejection, and hidden hurts. They found little joy in life. Behind the facades they brought to church was the longing for meaning and a basis for hope.  

The scriptures give an answer. Genuine hope is one of the connecting virtues in the triad of faith, hope, and love. For the apostle, hope is more than wishful thinking. There is a firm foundation in which it is anchored. That foundation is found in the promises of God. A number of times in scripture those promises are said to form the hope of eternal salvation.   

Salvation in the present tense is deliverance from those things which defeat us in life. In our day-by-day experiences, hope may not provide some of the temporal things we wish for, but it is a strong power in which we can trust when all else fails around us. In that power, we can overcome that which robs us of joy and peace. Our hope is not in ourselves and our abilities but in the grace of God. We can live successfully in God given hope.