I want so much to believe

Some of us spend our lives trying to do the right thing all along, trusting that things would turn out well in the end.  Perhaps they will, but when things seem to go dreadfully wrong, we may start to question whether any of the sacrifices we made were even worth it.  We may start to question our own perception of what our purpose in life is.  We may become disillusioned.  We may even start to believe that we really did not have a purpose.

John the Baptist sent his own disciples to ask Jesus a burning question he had in his mind.  He did not go and ask Jesus on his own because being in prison makes that sort of thing rather difficult.  John had spent his entire life living for the one who is to come.  In fact, even before he was born, he got all excited when he heard the voice of the mother of Jesus.  Of course, John was under the impression all along that Jesus is the one who is to come, and rightly so.

But in spite of doing the right thing and living the right way and carrying out his mission, his purpose, he found himself in prison.  Being imprisoned involves living a life that is no longer your own and spending a lot of time alone.  Hope begins to die and doubt begins to creep in.  This was not at all how it was supposed to turn out.  So now John was no longer completely sure if Jesus was indeed the one who is to come.  But in spite of his doubt, he refused to give up hope.  That would have meant disaster for him because everything about his life, his sacrifices, decisions he made, indeed his very purpose of existence, was based upon his understanding that Jesus is the one who is to come.

John really wanted so much to believe - so much that he was willing to risk falling into despair for the chance to find peace of mind.  Jesus knew the situation well enough.  So he saw to it that the message John got would be one of great hope – one that would erase all doubt about who is the one who is to come.

So John had a purpose, after all, AND it was fulfilled.  Of course, he did not know that until he received the message from Jesus.  Until then, his bleak situation made it seem that his whole life may have been wasted, even when not a single thing about it was wasted.  The fact of the matter is, we ALL have a purpose.  Some of us may have even fulfilled that purpose, whether or not we know it at the time.  So no matter how dreadfully wrong our lives seem to have become, we should never lose hope because nothing was wasted.

Luke 7: 18b-23