By Danny Minton

Pearl Harbor. Mention the name and most people flash back to our history classes on the beginning of the U.S. involvement in World War II. On one of the saddest days of the war, over 2,400 Americans lost their lives due to the surprise attack by the Japanese Empire. If we’re asked the name of a ship that was sunk, most will quickly come back with the USS Arizona. It took the heaviest loss, losing 1,177 members of its crew, with over 900 still entombed inside the ship, which is now a memorial. The second ship remembered is the USS Oklahoma, which suffered the loss of almost 500 crew members.

Numerous sad stories emerged from that day in 1941. There was one story that didn’t come to light until six months after that day, when salvage efforts began on the USS West Virginia. As work took place, the salvage crew broke into a dry area where they discovered the bodies of three sailors, Clifford Olds, 20; Ronald Endicott, 18; and Louis “Buddy” Costin, 21. What the crew found is what makes this story one that not only brings a note of sadness, but also something that pulls at our heartstrings.

On the wall, the crew found a calendar turned to the month of December. At closer inspection, they could see that each day from December 7^th through December 23^rd was crossed out. They came to the realization that the three men had been alive, hoping to be rescued, for sixteen days. Three men were clinging to life with hopes of being rescued from their tomb. Unfortunately, what they didn’t realize was that a safe rescue was impossible. 

“It was worse at night,” said Marine Corps bugler Dick Fiske. “You’d hear bang-bang-bang, then stop, then bang-bang-bang from deep in the bow of the ship. It didn’t take long to realize that men were making that noise.” To this day, Fiske chokes up when he tells the story. “Pretty soon, nobody wanted to do guard duty, especially at night when it was quiet. It didn’t stop until Christmas Eve.” (Warfare History Network)

As I read articles about this event, two thoughts kept running through my mind. What transpired during those sixteen days is the story of two distinct groups, each with a situation that weighed heavily on their minds and hearts. Both groups of men were in a situation over which they had no control.

The young men trapped in the bowels of the ship held on to the hope that someone would hear their cry and rescue them. There was nothing they could do but pray and hope for help to arrive. Many people in life find themselves in situations where they can do nothing but pray and hope, depending on help from outside their own abilities, like these three men. Illness strikes, and we find ourselves or a loved one with needs that we have no power to meet. We live in hope that medicine or those in the medical field can find a cure. Us? We can only hope that something or someone will bring us out of the debts of stress and sorrow. Like the men banging from deep within the ship, we pray over and over, seeking and hoping. It may be one of the many things, such as illness, finances, family, job, or one of many other things, that we can only look for and hope for relief.

However, there’s another group in our lives that we often forget. They are the ones who see us in times of grief and need. They watch and listen to us as we share the stories in our lives, seeking relief through means we cannot see and only hope. These are the people who know our situation and can do nothing to help, but pray and hope with us. It hurts them to know we are in situations that could and often do end badly, but it is impossible for them to help. They also live with the pain in their hearts that they are unable to relieve us of the pain we may be experiencing. They hear the “bang-bang-bang” of the hope from our hearts. It hurts them almost as much as it does us, simply because they cannot help.

If we take the time to look around us, we will see both groups of people; some we will know, and others will be the strangers we pass on the street. We all live in a world of hope, hope for ourselves and hope for others. As we think of the three young men trapped in what those above knew was a hopeless situation, it’s evident that they never gave up on the hope of being saved. For sixteen days, they sent messages to those above, hoping to be saved.

Although life does not always go the way we want, we are promised greater hope. It’s a hope that takes us all away from the pains and fears of this world and embraces us in the arms of God, where the stress, sorrow, pain, and fear no longer exist. When we find ourselves in either place, we should always keep in mind the ultimate hope of the unseen.

“Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NASB)

Danny Minton is a former Elder and minister at Southern Hills Church of Christ