"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ form the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." I Peter 1:3-6

I had been at Fort McClellan, Alabama, for only four days when I realized that life as I knew it was over. Drill sergeants were screaming and yelling, barking orders and forcing us to do push-ups and squat-thrusts until we thought we might die. I was overcome with this sick feeling of hopelessness. The only immediate comfort was the knowledge that approximately fifty other guys were feeling the exact same way. I was not alone. I was surrounded by a crowd of people, and we all felt hopeless.

It was later that evening during another orientation session when we got to meet all of our superiors -- from our drill sergeants, (who we already knew and did not want to know), to the colonel. They knew the feeling that we all had, and their job this evening was to boost morale -- to give us a sense of hope. The person that gave me the most hope was the sergeant major. As he was introduced to us, it was explained that he had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five years. Five years!! He began to tell us why he loved the Army and what had kept him going and hopeful during those five years. From that day on, I was hopeless no more.

Hope is the heartbeat of life. It's a reason to keep striving, working, and living. Hope keeps us going through turbulent times. The apostle Peter is addressing Christians who are going through great persecution. His message is that of hope. The only true hope is to be found in a Christian life. It is a hope that will sustain us through any trial and any circumstance. We have an inheritance that will never perish, spoil, or fade.