The Relationship Between Christian Hope and Eternity
In my own life, both counseling and eschatological hope have played important roles. Since coming into a conscious, intentional relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ during my sophomore year of college, my relationship with Him and the promise of eternity with Him has time and again been the only Anchor I have had to keep me grounded in hope. For a number of reasons, I have often felt very much alone in a frighteningly big world — growing up an “only child”; being single as an adult; always having lived far from aunts, uncles, and cousins on one side of the family and never having even met the ones on the other side of the family since they all live on another continent. The lack of family has been the cause of much lack of any sense of belonging at various times in my life. And at such times I have become awestruck with the understanding that God adopted me as His child, adopted me into His family, and has promised to let me live with that family for all eternity. As I read the gospels, I am struck over and over again by words such as, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you,” and “If I go away, I will return again and receive (literally in Greek, “Welcome!”) you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” And meanwhile, the Lord Jesus has sent Another Comforter to come alongside me and abide in me.
It is my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the reality of my adoption into God’s family that provided me with the resources to move towards emotional health. And it is the promise of Eternity with God that has given me the hope needed to persevere. But at various points on the journey I have despaired of things ever being positive enough in my earthly life that I would begin to experience enough joy to make all the pain worth living through. And at such points verses such as Romans 8:18 and II Cor. 4:17,18 have provided an eschatological framework in which to see pain as endurable and meaningful, and, on that basis, to be able to persevere.
I came to a point in my life, however, when even the eternal hope that I had been given did not seem to be able to get me through some pretty knotty problems. It’s not that the hope that God offered was insufficient; but I had “baggage from the past” that kept me from being able to access God’s resources adequately, including the resource of hope. Counseling helped to remove much of that baggage, enabling me to utilize more fully the spiritual resources available to me in Christ. So eschatological hope and counseling worked hand-in-hand to motivate me and sustain me.
In a similar way, during one practicum experience, I was faced with a sick, unemployed, poorly educated, single-mother client for whom insufficient public aid existed even to meet basic survival needs. As the client talked about suicide, I found myself having a hard time knowing how to offer hope. From an earthly perspective, the client had no basis for hope. She was in a horrible situation and there was nothing “the system” could do for her. And there was no earthly reason to believe her situation was likely to improve. Not being permitted to bring up spiritual matters in this situation, what hope could I realistically offer this client? I felt helpless.
At another agency, during another practicum, I faced a similar client, but this client was a believer. While there were still no readily discernible solutions to her practical difficulties, at least we could view the situation within an eschatological context and bring some hope into the picture. There was meaning for her suffering in the present and promise for something better in eternity. And there was hope in the power of prayer to introduce change in the present, although the form that change might take was not clear. The difference that hope made was almost palpable in the atmosphere of the counseling room in comparing working with these two clients who were very similar except for the difference in the respective eschatological contexts in which they viewed life.
Hope is a vital necessity for both survival and for growth. Counseling that utilizes God’s promises regarding Eternity can provide a hope that is real, a hope that is powerful, and a hope that is permanent.
Jeanne L. Jensma, M.R.E., Ph.D., Director of Counseling
