The Many Faces of Hope

 

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Some wandered in the wilderness, lost and homeless.  Hungry and thirsty, they nearly died.  “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he rescued them from their distress.  He led them straight to safety, to a city where they could live.  Psalm 107:4-7

This Psalm celebrates Israel’s history, of course.  But it is also a story told and retold throughout the generations of humanity; it is the story of distress and deliverance, rags to riches, dungeon to throne, love-lost to reunion, blindness to sight, crippled to leaping, and in a thousand other themes.  This is God’s story of the bleak impossible turned real, the ageless, magnificent story of hope and salvation.

Monday of this week the ultimate working-out of this story made its way into my line of sight…again.  We buried a church member.  Linda was not pretentious or mean-spirited.  She wasn’t over-demanding or unduly-proud (other than her love of Alabama’s Crimson Tide football team!).  She was just Linda, mother, grand & great grandmother.  She loved her family and football!

It is humbling to stand before any congregation with the awesome charge to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ…but particularly so when the charge for the preacher is to say a word of comfort to a grieving family.  The words are in the church’s worship book, about why we gather, that in pain we may find comfort, in sorrow hope, in death resurrection.  Sometimes that comfort, hope, and resurrection come in just gathering, or the preacher’s words, or a child’s reciting a memory verse.  Monday, for me, it came in the son-in-law’s song.  With a resounding baritone, Rick sang Celebrate Me Home.  The words are particularly filled with faith in God which overcome pain and sorrow.  It was almost impossible to get off my chair and continue.  Here are the words he sang:

When the time comes and I am standing at the river

That separates the two worlds that I love

Torn between my precious friends and my family

And the place of peace that's waiting up above

Hold my hand and stay there by my side, And when I finally step into the tide

Celebrate me home!  Celebrate me there

Celebrate me in that land of wonder where nothing can compare

Celebrate me in that place Celebrate me saved by grace

Don't just sit and weep because I'm gone…Celebrate me Home

I have spent most of my life on earth preparing

To take the trip from here to Heaven's throne

With the Shield and Word of God to guide me 

Its a comfort knowing I am not alone

So when I take my final fleeting breath  And fade into the gentle sleep of death

Celebrate me home!  Celebrate me there

Celebrate me in that land of wonder where nothing can compare

Celebrate me in that place  Celebrate me saved by grace

Don't just sit and weep because I'm gone  Celebrate me Home

No more broken dreams  No more tears to cry  Into my Father's arms I'll fly  Celebrate me home!  Celebrate me there

Celebrate me in that land of wonder where nothing can compare

Celebrate me in that place  Celebrate me saved by grace

Don't just sit and weep because I'm gone  Celebrate me Home![1]

This is more than just a tear-jerker, designed to create a momentary flood of emotion.  This is a Christ-centered statement of faith, and the fondest prayer I know for the ones I love.  It bridges the divide between longing for Heaven, and the connection of here.

For You Today

If you’ve lost someone, and you’ve run out of ways to stop hurting, take a few minutes to re-read the words of this song.  Listen to it sung.[2]  Discuss these words with another friend, or your pastor.  This is why God gave us The Church…so we can move beyond grieving as those who have no hope.  ^{1 Thessalonians 4:13} 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Celebrate Me Home, Joel Lindsey, Wayne Haun, performed by The Perrys, 2012, (Songlyrics.com)

[2] Go here to listen to The Perrys’ version on YouTube.com

Missing Pieces

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Friday, November 16, 2018

If you have ever had one of those nagging feelings, a sense that something is missing, this won’t be hard to understand.  My missing piece is a sense that I gave up something sacred to do something else … also sacred.  And it caused a void, a vacancy in me which cannot be undone.  But, like all the holes in me, Scripture speaks faith to my places of emptiness.

Hannah also had an emptiness; she was barren, unable to have children.  Three-thousand years ago that was more than a lifestyle choice, or something to let a fertility expert handle.  In Hannah’s world this was a flashing neon sign to all who knew her that God considered her unworthy and had made her a second-class woman.  It said all her outward beauty was for nothing; she would live in pain and shame all her days.

But Hannah was filled with more than pain; there was also faith.  She prayed with an open life before the Lord, promising to dedicate a first son God would give her back to God’s service.  Acknowledging God’s sovereignty was part of her thanksgiving prayer when God blessed Hannah with newborn Samuel:

For all the earth is the Lord’s, and he has set the world in order.  1 Samuel 2:8(NLT)

Hannah followed through and brought a newly weaned toddler to the temple to serve the Lord.  And this is where the hole, the missing piece in my heart, tracks with Samuel;

But Samuel, though he was only a boy, served the Lord.  He wore a linen garment like that of a priest.  Each year his mother made a small coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice.  Before they returned home, Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “May the Lord give you other children to take the place of this one she gave to the Lord.”  And the Lord blessed Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters.   Meanwhile, Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.  1 Samuel 2:18-21(NLT)

Every time I read about Samuel’s boyhood, spent in the temple, away from parents and his brothers and sisters, I get wistful about those years after leaving home.  Far from family, moving around in ministry, place after place, can grind that longing into a nostalgia that burns a hole inside.  Relationships at the end of a phone connection can only go so far.  Holding a hand, staring into your blue-eyed Mom’s face, a hug from your Dad, or brother; distance extinguishes such treasures.

A bit of confession is due here; there have been times, and not just a few, that I have felt like Peter:

Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you.  What will we get?”  Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.  Matthew 19:27-28(NT)

The approval of God, and the crown of serving Him throughout eternity aside, the nagging wonder of all those nomadic, itinerant years, missing family birthdays, connection for my children with their cousins and grandparents – well, it wears on you and, if family means anything to you, you must take that before the throne. 

And when I did, Jesus spoke these words into my heart, through the Apostle Paul:

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him.  Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him.  Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.  Colossians 2:6-7(NLT)

I still miss my family, and we do what we can to stay in touch, grow in grace and love towards each other.  I value and treasure whatever time we get to spend together with the all-too-few visits on special occasions.  But God’s Word rings true; my heart overflows with thankfulness in this season; my Redeemer is making all things new, even as we speak.

For You Today

In a week this year’s Thanksgiving Day will be history.  But the season of Thanksgiving is eternally yours if you’re allowing your life’s roots to grow deep into Christ Jesus and building your life on him; thankfulness overflows every day!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

In God's Hand

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Thursday, November 1, 2018

When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.  “Where have you put him?” he asked them.  They told him, “Lord, come and see.”  Then Jesus wept.  The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!”  But some said, “This man healed a blind man.  Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”  Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.  “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”  Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”  So they rolled the stone aside.  Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.  You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”  Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”  And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth.  Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”  John 11:32-44(NLT)

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them.  In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be an affliction, and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace.  For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.  Wisdom of Solomon 3:1-4(Apocrypha)

Jesus’ first command after the dead man, Lazarus, walked out of the grave was to get the shroud unwrapped.  Nowhere do any of the Gospel writers record that Jesus commanded them to draw a bath to get rid of death’s smell.  Like the three Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, walking around in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, who came out alive without a burn, or even the smell of smoke on them, Lazarus walked out of what should have been a cesspool (by all natural reasoning).  

The next time we hear Lazarus' name ^{(John 12)} he’s sitting with Jesus at the dinner table.  This should make the point that not even the smell – the memory – or even the thought of death can survive the life-giving power of the hand of God!

It is this life-giving promise that makes All-Saints Day such a comfort.  If you have ever been near a decomposing body, you understand there is a natural/physical reality to death … and it isn’t pretty.  But that is the contrast that makes Solomon’s wisdom so appropriate today.  This wise king of Israel says those who have passed into the hand of God only seemed to have died, when the truth is they are safe in the hand of God, and, as the hymn-writer has it, near to the heart of God.

For You Today

You don’t just think about your loved ones who have passed from this earthly existence on All-Saints Day; if you’re like me, there’s not a day that goes by that doesn’t include joy and sadness over not being able to see Mom and Dad, or bury my face in Grandma Carrie’s apron.  But, thanks be to God, I know where they are, and that’s not only good enough for now … it is sealed by the life-giving hand of God for eternity because of the resurrection of Jesus!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

When Life Gets Broken

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Thursday, December 28, 2017

This is what the Lord says:  “A cry is heard in Ramah—deep anguish and bitter weeping.  Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted—for her children are gone.”  But now this is what the Lord says:  “Do not weep any longer, for I will reward you,” says the Lord.  “Your children will come back to you from the distant land of the enemy.  There is hope for your future,” says the Lord.  “Your children will come again to their own land.  Jeremiah 31:15-17^(NLT)

Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him.  He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance.  Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:  “A cry was heard in Ramah—weeping and great mourning.  Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.”  Matthew 2:16-18^(NLT)

Through Jeremiah God foretold the wickedness of King Herod trying to eliminate the threat of a child who might grow up to replace him.  In one monstrous, terrifying night of genocide he had all the male children less than two years old killed.  A night of weeping is bad; a generation of sadness of that magnitude is life broken beyond measure.

I have been (too often) with a group of people gripped by sadness over one of life’s twists – a child’s death, or a loved spouse taken too soon...news of tragedy from a distance where no hug is possible.  And we have heard these words offered as a sincere, well-meaning attempt to make sense of the darkness:  God won’t put any more on you than you can bear.

I have an idea that if you offered that to the mothers of Ramah that night it would have brought little comfort.  Their pain was too deep; a clichéd you can do this is just too hollow and shallow…just not enough.  Somehow philosophical or theological whistling in the dark just cannot blunt the pain of loss beyond imagination. 

Telling someone she is strong enough to bear the unbearable, because God has given her faith, is not comforting – it merely lays another burden on an already broken life.  And it is that life, grappling with the loss over the following weeks, months, perhaps decades, which will learn to receive the comfort we long-for, but can’t imagine, exists.  As with cooking a meal, stirring a pot faster doesn’t get supper on the table any sooner.  Pain takes time to simmer.

A word to the wise:  If you would be a caregiver, let it simmer; just be there to hold whatever needs holding.

For You Today

Today I’d like for Dr. Mitch Chase to have the last word:

Trials come in all shapes and sizes, but they don’t come to show how much we can take or how we have it all together.  Overwhelming suffering will come our way because we live in a broken world with broken people.  And when it comes, let’s be clear ahead of time that we don’t have what it takes.  God will give us more than we can handle—but not more than he can.[2]

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Mitch Chase in God Will Give You More Than You Can Handle

Confrontation With God

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Friday, April 7, 2017

Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress.  Tears blur my eyes.  My body and soul are withering away.  I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness.  Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within.  I am scorned by all my enemies and despised by my neighbors—even my friends are afraid to come near me.  When they see me on the street, they run the other way.  I am ignored as if I were dead, as if I were a broken pot.  I have heard the many rumors about me, and I am surrounded by terror.  My enemies conspire against me, plotting to take my life.  But I am trusting you, O Lord, saying, “You are my God!”  My future is in your hands.  Rescue me from those who hunt me down relentlessly. Psalm 31:9-15^(NLT)

“Be silent now and leave me alone.  Let me speak, and I will face the consequences.  Why should I put myself in mortal danger and take my life in my own hands?  God might kill me, but I have no other hope.  I am going to argue my case with him.  But this is what will save me—I am not godless.  If I were, I could not stand before him.  “Listen closely to what I am about to say.  Hear me out.  I have prepared my case; I will be proved innocent.  Who can argue with me over this?  And if you prove me wrong, I will remain silent and die.                                         Job 13:13-19^(NLT)

For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.  But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ.  So I really don’t know which is better.  I’m torn between two desires:  I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. Philippians 1:21-23^(NLT)

Six years ago I felt like King David; my years were being shortened by sadness.  I’d had an interview with the Board of Ordained Ministry and was deferred for a year.  The reason given me was that I had too much sadness in my life; really?

I was angry at their decision for obvious reasons; their decision was a blow; I was being treated like a broken pot, set aside; oh, brother, can we say victim?  You get the drift! But in hindsight, after some years of reflection I see things a lot more clearly.  My mother had recently passed and, like King David, I’ve realized that when I’m sad, even my friends want to cross to the other side of the street when they see me. 

In my angry grief at having my career delayed and feeling sidelined unfairly, like Job I learned to snip at those closest to me.  The result was the church I was serving objected to a snippy preacher and our relationship suffered.  (Spouses of snippy preachers aren’t all that thrilled with them either!).  Eventually, like Job, I found myself emotionally alone, drowning in trying to figure-out what God was up to.

The apostle Paul found himself in a Roman jail under sentence of death by beheading.  He had trouble figuring out if God wanted him dead or alive.  And Paul didn’t know which was better.  Frankly, I also wanted to quit; if God wasn’t going to use me like I thought He should, well…again, you get the drift!

There is one reality I shared with King David, Job, and Paul; eventually all four of us learned to place the whole mess we’d made of our attitude firmly in God’s hands and wait for the answer.

Folks…that ain’t easy!

Well, there is an up-side to this tale of woe.  God used the circumstances to teach me an even greater trust with the smallish details of my life, and to accept where He is taking me as a man, husband, father, grandfather, (dare I say great-grandfather?) and as God’s servant.

I like that about God!                          

For You Today

Those of you who live below the Mason-Dixon Line understand the meaning of the word, mess.  Making a mess of greens means you’re going to also have cornbread for dinner.  So, for you, today…if you’ve made a mess of your attitude, friendships, and other relationships and circumstances, give that mess to God; He will make a meal out of it that will surprise you!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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NOTES

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 ^I Title image: By Artist: Chaim Koppelman (Chaim and Dorothy Koppelman Foundation), via Wikimedia Commons