I love water. I always have. And I love being on the water. Any chance I have to be on a boat of any size, I take. I also am developing a strong liking for anchors. Ships and anchors, though, they're two very different things. A ship is freedom. A ship is adventure, a means by which to take a voyage, and an opportunity to be with the sea. An anchor, on the other hand, is permanence. It is security. It keeps you from moving from where you should be. It keeps you in place. A ship and an anchor are completely opposite things and yet both are quite useless without the other. What is a ship without an anchor? The ship would never cease moving. Journeys would never be completed. Those who sought the freedom of a ship and the sea would instead find themselves slaves, captives to them. Instead of opportunity, they would find misfortune. And an anchor without a ship? What is the value in that? It has nothing to keep in place. It is useful to nobody, merely a hunk of metal on the ocean floor.
"We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain." Hebrews 6:18&19 (ESV)
And so, you see, it is the same way with the soul and hope. To be honest, sometimes I hate hope. I don't want it. Sometimes it is easier to accept what is without hope. But what does that do to the soul?
I am reminded of a quote by C.S. Lewis. "To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."
While yes, this quote deals with love and the heart, I would suggest that it could be applied to hope and the soul as well. A soul cut off from hope will become hopeless, unmoored, adrift.
And have you ever really contemplated total hopelessness? I look at people living in darkness, in horrible situations, in pain and torment, and I wonder, "how do they survive this? How do they even get out of bed in the morning without the hope of something more than this life they're living? How their souls must hurt."
But the hope set before us, it anchors our souls in the truth of the Gospel, the promise of salvation; it keeps us anchored in the eternal Kingdom. Hope keeps us anchored and tied to our true home as our souls float about in the world.
So what is a soul without hope? Without the truth of the Gospel, that Christ died for our sins and was resurrected, our faith is futile and our souls are forfeit (1 Corinthians 15:17). But the Gospel is where our hope is found and "we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul."
