Recently, I had a chance to listen to a Timothy Keller sermon on Ezekiel 37:1-14 entitled, “The God Who Makes Alive.” In that famous dry bones passage, Ezekiel is writing to the Jews in exile in Babylon who have gone through trauma and are, in fact, still in the middle of it as they long for a return to their normal lives back home.

In his sermon, Keller referenced Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl, who wrote, in Man’s Search for Meaning, that people in the death camps usually responded to trauma in one of three ways as they: a) lost all principles and betrayed those closest to them; b) gave up and withered; or c) became quietly heroic, manifested courage, and made sacrifices.

What distinguished these groups from one another was the source of their hope. If they had temporal hope in things of this earthly life like wealth, family, or career, there was nothing to lean on when those things were taken away. If they had a hope that extended beyond this life, they had something to live for and could envision an end to their sufferings.

In 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul addresses the idea of how central the resurrection is to a believer’s faith. The implication for us today is clear — if our hope is focused on anything but Christ’s death and resurrection and the belief that we too will one day be raised with him — then our faith is useless. We are even to be pitied, writes Paul.

The thing is, all three of the responses to trauma or difficulty that Frankl describes are choices — choices we make every day. But we have a hope that is sure. We know that “…our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (1 Corinthians 4:17). And that allows us to be heroic, manifest courage, and make sacrifices.

Oh God, give me strength each day to take my eyes off of my own struggles and learn to rest in the hope that comes from focusing on Christ’s victory over death through his resurrection from the grave.

Throughout This Day: Remind yourself often that God is taking us on a journey of hope and that the end result will be eternal glory.



Tags: Daily Devotional 1 Corinthians 15
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