The Light of Hope is Always Shining

And it might just be in you

I recently watched the 2017 movie Stronger, which is based on the book of the same name, written by Jeff Bauman, double amputee and survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Jeff was standing near the finish line, the site of the first blast, and notably saw one of the bombers, something he shared with a friend after later waking up in the hospital.

A picture of him being wheeled from the scene beside Carlos Arrendondo—the man who applied tourniquets to Jeff’s legs—made front page news after the bombing. And because of this picture, he became a face of the Boston Strong movement.

Throughout the film, we watch Jeff, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, grapple with this newfound “hero” role thrust upon him while he tries to understand his new life—one filled with medication, doctor visits and physical therapy, with significantly decreased independence and feelings of unworthiness.

It is evident how hopeful he makes people in the community, how they are drawn to him, compelled to thank him merely for continuing on, for not “letting them win”—them being the terrorists. In one scene, he is surrounded by people after a Boston Red Sox game who tell him their stories and how he’s played a significant part in their healing, both in the aftermath of the bombing, and wounds that date farther back.

I don’t know if Jeff was or is a man of faith, but watching him become a light in a city that desperately needed it strengthened my belief that God has a hand in everything.

 Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

I am not someone that believes everything “happens for a reason.” But I do believe that even in seasons of pure darkness, even in the aftermath of incomprehensible evil, God can fit things together to create good, to create hope.

Jeff might never know why he was put in that role, why he survived when others didn’t, why the bombers did what they did, and why he has to wake up each day in this new reality. But what a miracle that his survival, his story, his mere being reinspired hope in complete strangers. It gave them courage to move forward, to believe in the goodness still left in the world.

In one scene, when Carlos and Jeff meet for coffee, Carlos thanks Jeff. Saying that being able to help him made him feel like he helped his sons who had passed away years prior.

Can you imagine hearing such a thing from the person that saved your life?

Thank you.

We never know where life is going to take us, or the circumstances we might find ourselves in. Sometimes things can get dark, hard, seemingly impossible to walk through, but stories like Jeff’s remind me that we are never alone in those seasons. And though we might see evidence of evil, is it not proof of the absence of God, of goodness.

So today I pray that whatever you’re walking through, or whatever darkness might still hold onto corners of your heart, that you might find clarity as to where God was and is in those corners. That you would find assurance that good hands are at work, and that the light of hope is always shining somewhere, and that maybe just by being, just by taking a step forward each day, you are that hope for someone else.