The Sound of No Hope

What is the sound of no hope? Recently, a friend of mine went to a funeral where the pastor was giving an encouraging sermon on the blessing of knowing the deceased would be in heaven because he was a believer. According to my friend, the message drifted into points of “eternal security” and such, but to avoid any “Christianese” type language, I’ll stick with: The pastor was rejoicing, along with everyone else, because the deceased wasn’t just a “good person” (by those standards, what makes a person a “good person”? Is it your definition? Is it their definition? What about God’s definition?), but the deceased was an active follower of Christ and you did not have to ask him if he was a Christian – he lived it out. All that to say, he was now living for Jesus and accepted the free gift of citizenship in heaven – forever and ever.

The deceased could not lose his salvation. Salvation is a free gift given to us by the grace of Jesus Christ. The mere idea as to whether we can lose our salvation means we would have had to do something to work for it to begin with, and we cannot work for anything from God – not even salvation. He gives it even though we do not deserve it, because He is a gracious God who loves us THAT much.

All that to say, the pastor mentioned a story, where he was giving the message at a funeral for an elderly deceased woman. He comforted the family, and as the funeral was ending he was walking out. His hand was almost on the door and he heard this horrifying shriek about 50 feet behind him, and then he heard it again incredibly loudly. The pastor said the shrieking was so loud it was hurting his ears, and then he turned around. The pastor then saw the woman’s elderly husband run, shrieking and screaming, then throwing himself on his wife’s casket. He gripped the casket crying loudly, still shrieking, while family members scrambled to pry the man off of his beloved wife’s casket. Evidently, the woman had not been a believer in Jesus Christ. The husband had been a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and she died without him having the hope of ever seeing her again in eternity. THAT, without a doubt, is the sound of no hope. The shrieking, the uncontrollable crying and screaming from not having the hope of seeing someone you love so dearly ever again – surely, THAT is the absolute horrifying sound of having no hope.

I thought about this story for days, still thinking about it to be honest. I want to see ALL my family and friends in eternity with Jesus, but to be honest, I have serious and grave questions as to whether some of them will make it to heaven. The heavy heart issue here is: those same family and friends do not want to hear about Jesus at all, or maybe they just simply tolerate having to hear about Jesus. In fact, their lives look nothing like someone who follows Christ. So then God brought the next question to my mind: Do I love them?

A little caught off guard, my intellectual answer was “yes, of course!”. However, I admit it is a struggle to truly love these people because they reject not only Christ, but also mock and reject my incredibly personal decision to devote my life to following Christ. Then I remembered:

If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? – Matthew 5:46, NIV

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." – John 13:35, NIV

I could wash the feet of these people; I could call them everyday to ask how their day was; I could make them a meal; I could be their shoulder to cry on; I could hug them; I could walk beside them through difficult times; I could hold their hand; I could give them money if needed; I could buy them the best gifts at Christmas; I could pray for them; I could do a lot of things for these people to show love to them even though I may not have wanted to, even though loving them was way down on my priority list. However, one thing I knew even deeper was this: If I truly wanted to love them, I needed to do everything in my power to share Christ with them. I needed to throw my own pride to the wind, I needed to get rid of my own fear that I would offend them or cause them to think I’m judging them (because let’s be honest, folks who do not want to be held accountable to God will often cry “Judgement!” on those who impart His truth to them). I had to think about that, my OWN disgusting pride of what these people thought of me was standing in the way of them encountering the message of the Christ’s radiant love.

When I stand before God one day, I do NOT want to think, “Sure Lord, I love you so much! But uh, I was fearful in telling other’s about your love because they might reject me, or you, or both….” Moreover, I do NOT want to be the one standing there at a funeral crying out with the sound of no hope. Furthermore, I don’t want that for anyone, to stand in the presence of the deceased who is NOT known by their unrestrained heart for a living Christ. If you are reading this, and you are just a little bit unsure if you are a follower of Christ, I encourage you to seek out a bible believing church TODAY. Do not wait! Do not let your loved ones stand there one day shrieking and crying out with the sound of no hope, wondering if you are with Jesus or if you are somewhere much worse. I pray God uses this to reveal his love for you, and I pray this encourages you to also let God remove your own pride in sharing Christ with others. Don’t let fear stop the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ!