“So Betsie and I came to our barracks at Ravenbruck. Before long we were holding clandestine Bible study groups for an ever-growing group of believers, and Barracks 28 became known throughout the camp as “the crazy place, where they hope.”

These words are from Corrie ten Boom, the well-known Christian Holocaust survivor, who had been imprisoned along with her sister and family for hiding Jews during the Nazi’s rise to power.

Ravenbruck is an infamous women’s concentration camp where tens of thousands of Jewish women and girls were enslaved, tortured, and slaughtered throughout Hitler’s reign of terror.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Words can never adequately describe the horrors of the holocaust. No matter how many pictures we see or memorials we visit, what men and women suffered during that repulsive period of history is still unfathomable to the human mind. Yet, in the midst of the gas chambers, human-fueled ovens and unspeakable suffering, Miss ten Boom testifies to the veracity of God’s Word and the immeasurable hope it releases. Indeed, a hope so substantive and strong that it was able to penetrate the grim and demonic darkness of her circumstances and replace it with an unwavering and glorious expectation.

“Yes, hope, in spite of all that human madness could do. We had learned that a stronger power had the final word, even here.” (“Tramp for the Lord” by Corrie ten Boom”)

“The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” (Psalm 12:6)

How better to describe what this godly woman lived through than a “furnace of earth?” What an appropriate term the Holy Spirit uses to describe some of the calamities that many of us will and have faced during our time in this world. However, Miss ten Boom, found these words from a fellow sufferer to be even more true than her current conditions and thus worthy of her acceptance and dependence. She had experientially come to understand that biblical hope was not ‘wishful thinking’ or a ‘pie in the sky’ mentality. Instead, the hope that God provides is a spiritually tangible reality that so consumes our inner man that it overwhelms our external circumstances and situation.

“[Abraham] who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” (Romans 4:18)

Abraham and Sarah were both way beyond their child bearing years. Yet this elderly man took his godly hope, which was based upon God’s promise to him, and pitted it against his natural hope that said, “It will never happen.” Everything around this old couple screamed at the hopelessness of their situation. Surely people must have thought they were out of their minds for believing that God still had a future for them in view of their advanced age and unfruitfulness. Today, you and I can see in hindsight that this ‘future’ was the nation of Israel, the heritage and birth place of our Messiah!

“Now when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest beat on us, all hope that we would be saved was finally given up.” (Acts 27:20)

The Apostle Paul was on board a ship, caught in the middle of a storm with hundreds of lives hanging in the balance. After many days of tireless effort trying to save the ship and themselves most reached a place of dejection and hopelessness. However, the good news is that biblical hope begins where our natural hope ends!

“I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you... For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must be brought before Caesar; and indeed God has granted you all those who sail with you.’” (Acts 27:22-24)

You may currently be in a storm that threatens everything and everyone you hold dear. The diagnosis of a serious illness, the loss of your finances, or the devastation of false imprisonment and persecution, are just a few of the ‘hurricanes’ that we may face in this life.

The ‘tempest’ that is ‘beating’ on you may have you in such a dark and secluded place of despair that you’re wondering if you’ll ever see the sun of a new and bright day again. I encourage you to “take heart”, the same God that delivered Paul and those that sailed with Him, desires to deliver you and those that ‘sail’ with you.

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.” (Proverbs 13:12 & Hebrews 6:19)

There is nothing more detrimental than the loss of hope. In fact, many forms of depression and every single suicide is the direct result of hopelessness. That being said, there is nothing more medicinal, life-preserving, or life-producing than biblical hope. This God-empowered hope unleashes such a current of certainty into our beings that it literally charges every cell and atom in our bodies with sustenance and life. When we stand on God’s Word, and hope in His promises, it releases a faith that goes far beyond our circumstance or any of the natural hope this world has to offer. Instead, it goes directly into the holiest place in all of creation, the Presence of Hope Himself, Jesus Christ.

“Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy one to see corruption.” (Psalm 119:49 & 16:9-10)

These two messianic texts reveal an astounding truth; Jesus Christ Himself hoped in the very same Word upon which you and I do. After completing His work on earth, the Son had to lay His life down and completely put His resurrection hopes into the hands of His Father. Jesus had reached the “end of the line”, He could do nothing to raise Himself; He would now trust His Father and the promises of a glorious future made to Him. You and I not only know the outcome of this well placed hope, we are the beneficiaries of it.

“For we are saved by hope:” (Romans 8:24)

Circumstances that are beyond our capacity to fix are often God’s greatest acts of mercy. Your ‘Ravenbruck’ situation may not be as severe as Corrie Ten boom’s, as dramatic as Abraham’s, or as consequential as Paul’s and it may not be as far-reaching or significant as the Lord’s. However, God’s promises to you and me are just as sure as they were to them. And in the same manner that each of their trials and sufferings brought untold blessings to them and those around them, so it will for you and me.

There is hope in all we go through, there is a purpose and plan in every pain we endure; and most certainly there is a glorious future beyond the ‘furnace’ of this earth.

I encourage you to immerse yourself in God’s Word and allow it to create a “Barrack 28” right in the middle of your ‘Ravenbruck’ experiences. Find the glorious promises and future that God has for you, and then confound the stormy circumstances by steadfastly abiding in that “crazy place of hope.”

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)