Hope - The Bugle

Written by Corporal Nathan Chan of 10th Kuala Lumpur Company

In the days where soldiers would fight with spears and swords, a bugler was considered to be of a higher rank than a normal footsoldier. The bugler would constantly stay by the unit’s commander’s side, so that the commander’s orders could be relayed to the troops as fast a possible, through the bugle.

In a battle, the commander would give orders, the bugler would amplify them, and the entire army would hear. So long the bugler was alive and well, he would blow. And so long the army could hear the bugle, they would know that the battle was not lost. Such is the effect of hope.

Hope is an anchor. Big time trouble will hit, and it will make us doubt whether we will survive. When it hits, we have to know that we have the cross where Jesus died as our hope. We have to know that we have an anchor.

Yet hope is more than that. When trouble hits, when suffering comes, we need hope.

And when a single person hopes, others will hope as well. Hope is not just an anchor. It is also a bugle by which we can spread a message.

If there is a single thing that defines Jesus, what would it be? Some may say the feeding of the many people with a basketful of food. Others may think of His miraculous healings or His baptism. I believe the one thing that defines Jesus, even to non-Christians, was the cross on which He died. That one action summarized His entire life mission.

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13 NIV)

All of us has a life mission. For many, that would be self preservation and protecting loved ones. The same applied to Jesus, but with a single difference - it was not the most important. Self preservation was one of Jesus' goals, as was protection of those He loved.

Yet He had a greater purpose - to glorify God the Father. Everything Jesus did on earth contributed to this mission. When He healed the sick, He glorified God. When He fed five thousand, He glorified God. Even in His suffering on the cross, He glorified God. Especially when He was on the cross.

When problems, real big time problems, come thundering towards us, it is instinctive for us to ask: “Why is this happening to me?”. We should all know, however, that bad things happen because we live in a broken world.

Instead, we should ask: "What bugle am I playing? What message am I broadcasting?". Whenever trouble comes, it is inevitable that we will be shouting to others our belief. If our life mission is that of preservation, the message would probably that life is useless. Yet if we live to ultimately glorify God, the testimony will become one of hope.