Abandon All Hope?

Now when the south wind blew gently, supposing that they had obtained their purpose, they weighed anchor and sailed along Crete, close to the shore. 14 But soon a tempestuous wind, called the northeaster, struck down from the land. 15 And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and were driven along. 16 Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, [2] we managed with difficulty to secure the ship's boat. 17 After hoisting it up, they used supports to undergird the ship. Then, fearing that they would run aground on the Syrtis, they lowered the gear, [3] and thus they were driven along. 18 Since we were violently storm-tossed, they began the next day to jettison the cargo. 19 And on the third day they threw the ship's tackle overboard with their own hands. 20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. (Acts 27:13-20 (ESV)

All hope of our being saved was at last abandoned. Of course, Luke here means only salvation in the earthly sense, to be saved from worldly calamity. The storm rages for days on end. They lose their cargo and even their tackle. It was the kind of storm Jesus sleeps through, but causes the rest of us to grab on to whatever we can and hold on for dear life. The kind of storm that causes the sailors to toss Jonah overboard.

There are times like this in a person’s life when the storms rage and a person wonders if he will ever see the light of day again. Perhaps it is actually a storm at sea. That still happens, and ships sink. Perhaps it is cancer. Perhaps it is financial catastrophe. There can be a myriad of things that happen that cause a person to lose all hope.

But there is a hope we never have to abandon and that is the hope of eternal life we have in Jesus Christ. Here we have salvation that transcends this world. And a God who cares about you enough to die for you in this world is not one to abandon you to the seas of this world. Even should we die in the midst of these storms, Jesus is there for us holding us in his hand.