How to Have Hope in Uncertain Times

The past several weeks have seen several major heartbreaking events in world news that have fundamentally shifted the way many people think and relate to each other. I’ve also been taking some time to reflect, and while I’m going to leave any political commentary off this blog, I will share what I’ve concluded:

Now, more than ever, I need to put my energy into the things that matter most.

Family has always been a high priority to me. But, more often than not in my business, I’ve let myself be distracted by things that haven’t been part of my higher purpose.

You see, I’ve always considered my books to be more than entertainment. To me, they, and the hope and messages they contain, are part of my higher calling as a Christian and a person. My business is also my ministry.

And while the world feels more uncertain every day, God is solidifying a certainty in me about the importance of my calling and mission.

In my last post, I mentioned the strategic changes I’ve been making to my business this year that have created a bit more stability. I feel God has directed me to implement those changes to set me up to now be able to focus on writing fiction again, because that’s where he’s called me to work in this season of my life.

For Such a Time as This

Esther, Queen of Persia, ready to face Xerxes for the sake of her people.

The biblical book of Esther is about a young Jewish girl whose family is part of the Jewish diaspora in Persia during the time of King Xerxes (the enemy king in the movie 300).

At only fourteen years old, she is torn from her family to compete with hundreds of other girls to be the queen of a vain, selfish, narcissistic, heathen king—not even as his primary wife, but as one of several. “Losing” would mean being added to the king’s harem, never to leave, living out her days in isolation from her family. “Winning” wasn’t much better—it might come with a nominal crown, but very little power or influence outside the walls of her own home.

The “beauty contest” was a clever distraction for this volatile, dangerous ruler designed by his counselors, after he’d executed his previous favourite wife, Vashti, for making him lose face, and then subsequently experiencing a devastating loss at the hands of the Greeks. Against all odds, Esther is the one chosen.

Years later, the Xerxes was manipulated by one of his advisers, Haman (whose people had an ancient grudge against the Jews), into signing a decree that allowed anyone in Persia to slaughter all the Jews they could on a single day (determined by the casting of lots).

In that moment, Esther’s cousin (and foster father), Mordecai, urges her to go before the king and beg for her life and the lives of all her people. By then, Esther had fallen out of favour, and going before the Persian king uninvited was a law punishable by death.

In fear, she tries to decline, and Mordecai writes to her:

“Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” – Esther 4: 13-14, ESV

Esther’s courageous response is one of the most inspiring verses in the Bible:

Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.” – Esther 4: 15-16, ESV

This book of the Bible has always been among my favourites, to the point that I even co-wrote an entire Broadway-style musical about it. And this passage here is the key moment of the story—the Truth that the entire story points to.

When times are dark, it is time for people of faith to stand up and shine the light of hope. Not because victory is assured—it’s not—but because it’s the reason we’ve been given that light in the first place.

“When times are dark, it is time for people of faith to stand up and shine the light of hope. Not because victory is assured—it’s not—but because it’s the reason we’ve been given that light in the first place.”

And that is the conviction I’ve been feeling stir in the world, and in my heart, over the past little while.

There is a hope that is greater than the problems of this world. It’s the hope I talk about in every one of my books. It’s the hope that guides my life—and that is the hope I have in Jesus Christ. If you’re looking for hope in these dark times, I urge you to look to Jesus. Talk to him, and acknowledge that you’re a sinner who is lost without him. Ask him to come be lord of your life.

Is believing in Jesus the magic cure for everything wrong in the world?

Nope. (Well, if everyone did, it would be.)

But Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And he’s waiting to bring truth and life to you, that you may have life abundantly.

Trust me, the escalating disasters in our world are so much easier to face with courage when your hope is in the One whose hand guides history. He’s the God who redeems all the brokenness into beauty, including the brokenness in our own hearts.

Much love, my friend. I pray you may also know this hope I have in Jesus.

P.S. Esther is a short but amazing book. You can read the whole story here.