Easter brings to mankind a powerful sense of hope for the future. I share this because there seems to be a sense of hopelessness pervading our country today. I have read a great deal about the disturbing rise of deaths of despair (drug overdoses and suicide) among our younger generation. In a New York Times article, there was a discussion about the escalating suicide rate, and Robert Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard put his finger on what appears to be the heart of the problem: hopelessness.

A sense of hopelessness also seems to be a problem with the older baby boom generation, that I am a part of. Many boomers are beginning to realize that they are approaching the end of their lives.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul makes a keen observation on why this happens. In II Corinthians 4:16 he says that many people lose heart because their bodies are deteriorating. It is a stark reminder that they are no longer youthful and their lives will end sooner rather than later. Paul says as Christians we do not lose heart though our outer bodies are aging, our souls are being renewed day-by-day.

The prospect of our own mortality can be discouraging and even a source of great fear. This is why we need to live with hope. I heard someone say, “hope is the engine that drives your life.” The reason is, how you live your life today is influenced by how you perceive your life in the future.

This is why the resurrection of Jesus is so important to our lives. It is the ultimate hope for Christians. It is the ultimate anchor as we face the future, knowing that death is in our future. In reflecting upon death the famous historian H.G. Wells says, “we are up against a force that cannot be defeated.”

I believe the fear of death is amplified today because modern people have drifted away from life’s great foundation. This fear begins when we decide we do not need God because we believe we can do just fine without Him. Without realizing it we take on a position in the universe that is too big for us to handle on our own.

We need hope. We need to be able to face our mortality with peace so that we can live our days on this earth with real joy.

One of my favorite verses that relates to the Easter message is II Corinthians 1:8-10. Paul speaks about how he consistently faces death and how he puts his trust not in just any God, but in the “God who raises the dead.” He then boldly declares it is “He on whom we have set our hope.”

Then Peter tells us in I Peter 1:3,4 that we have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” He goes on to say that in heaven we have an imperishable inheritance, that will not fade away. It is “reserved in heaven for you.”

One of my favorite illustrations of hope comes from Philip Yancey. It’s a true story of American POWs in a German prison camp in World War II. They lived with great despair. They had no idea what the future held for them. They were clueless because they got no information from the outside world. They all wondered if they would ever see their families again. Is Germany winning the war? They had no idea and there was a lot of hopelessness.

But unbeknownst to the German guards, a couple of American engineers were able to put together a make-shift radio and they were able to start getting news. They heard that the allies had moved across Europe. Then they heard that they were coming into Germany and then they got word that the German high command had surrendered and the war was over.

Because of communication breakdowns, the German guards didn’t yet know that the war was over. So they kept guarding the POWs there in the prison camp, but as the word spread among all the prisoners, a loud celebration broke out. Yancey says, “For three days, the prisoners were hardly recognizable. They sang, they waved at the guards, they laughed at the German shepherd dogs. They shared jokes over meals. On the fourth day, they awoke to find they were now free men.”

For three days, their circumstances hadn’t changed. They were still in prison. They ate the same food, they slept in the same beds, they were guarded by the same German guards, but now they knew the final outcome, and it changed everything.

This is how God intends for His people to live their lives, with great joy as we anticipate the future, because He’s told us what the final outcome is and what the ultimate destiny for us is going to be. And it should change everything as we live our lives each day.

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.