The Cross of Hope

Topics: Cross, Suicide, 

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said that only once during his long imprisonment
in a labor camp in the Soviet Union did he become so discouraged that he
thought about suicide. He was outdoors, on a work detail, and he had
reached a point where he no longer cared whether he lived or died. When
he had a break, he sat down, and a stranger sat beside him, someone he
had never seen before and would never see again. For no apparent reason,
this stranger took a stick and drew a cross on the ground. Solzhenitsyn
sat and stared at that cross for a long while. He later wrote, "Staring
at that cross, I realized that therein lies freedom." At that point - in
the midst of a storm - he received new courage and the will to live. The
storm didn't end that day, but through Jesus, Solzhenitsyn found the
strength to ride it out.

I don't know what storm of life will come your way this week, or what
storm you may be enduring at this very moment. But I know this: even as
the storm rages around you, if you will listen very carefully with your
heart, you will hear a gentle voice calling to you, "Take heart, it is
I; do not be afraid. I'm still here." And in time the storm will pass.
But Jesus will still be there. AMEN

Johnny Dean, Sermon: Oh Me of Little Faith, Disciples of Christ, Matthew
14:22-33