HOPE...

My Pastor, Tom keeps a blog going on the church website. The May message was on HOPE. I found the message so very encouraging, and wanted to share it.

And yes, I have his permission ;-)

Hope. As I sat with the "older" adult Bible study this past Wednesday (studying the book of Romans, chapter 8 this week) - we all, in some sense, wrestled with the brokenness of this life. Our individual lives are broken. Our town is broken. Our children are broken. Our political system is broken. Our economy is broken. Our hearts are broken. Our nation is full of horror, sickness, and suffering - and we are America, the land of opportunity and dreams!! It's all a train-wreck!

I think that personally I am feeling and thinking HOPELESS(NESS) today and most of yesterday because my HOPE is misplaced. I am trusting in and hoping in...so many things - none of which can actually rescue me or offer lasting hope. Darn. Not again.

My hope is first and foremost in MYSELF. This place of hope is a hard habit to break (stop thinking of Peter Cetera). I just continue to think that I can save myself...that I can BE, DO, ...somehow make life good, ok, safe, and at peace... who am I, GOD? I guess so and I suck at it. My hope also resides in church people. That's like going to a hospital and HOPING that sick people will somehow cure me or be my "Jack Bauer" or James Bond in the last hour. Sick people can't save the day. Only THE PHYSICIAN. I know - nobody hopes in doctors anymore either. The church is FULL with sick patients (and I don't mean literally, our numbers are dwindling). Of course, I KNOW that I am a sick patient too right along with the rest. The sickest, perhaps! And if I can't put hope in CHURCH people - then who can I trust? No one.

Then there's the favorite idol, HOPE in family. Hope in your children. In your marriage. The "sick" part about hoping and trusting in our families is that in so doing we DOOM them to utter brokenness because when they DON'T/can't rescue us - we hate them, we leave them, we lash out at them, we dash them. We leave them for more "hopeful" loves - like porn, our jobs, ... or "younger" potential hope. And of course - all of it leaves us the same as before. Right?

Hope in your job. In your education. I think I hope in these the most. I am a pastor afterall. My CALLING is great - it's "helpful". It brings admiration. It brings "notice". It brings ... life?

HOPE in your lifestyle. In your nation. In your race. In your .... none of it works. None of it. And whatever you THINK is working for the moment... WILL fall...WILL fail....WILL faint...and ultimately you go down with it. Trust me. As you sink down - you hate it all.

SO, before you think that I'm off my meds. I'm not. I'm on them, I think. I'm having to come back around to the TRUTH of CHRIST - grieving the fact that there is only CHRIST in this life and in the one to come. Yes, I said "grieving" because it's painful to our HUMAN minds that we aren't enough. That our WAY is not THE way. We soooooo want there to be something else (other than Jesus!) ... we're ok with a little Jesus sprinkled on top of our towers, but come on - only HIM?? No way! There just isn't anything/anyONE else! He is all we have. He is all there is. And, frankly I'm tired of learning and re-learning this. I'm tired of having my HOPES dashed ...and Jesus says in a whisper - "Your hopes don't have to be dashed - they just have to rest in the RIGHT PLACE. ME." I whisper back in my fatigue - ok. Save me. Take me. "Those who CLING to worthless idols forfeit the GRACE that could be theirs" -Jonah (and he knew how to cling to worthless idols, just ask the BIG fish!)

If I HOPE and trust in Christ alone - what he has done, what he says (about me and the world), what he IS doing, what he is about, what he knows, who he knows (me), what he directs and leads (the church), then...I am in utter peace. I am ok. I am safe...even if the mountains fall into the depths of the sea...and I see it happening. Even if - all hell breaks loose and I lose all that I have - "It is well with my soul". This truth no longer thrills our hearts. It no longer awakens in us true HOPE. It actually brings contempt. We so want there to be something contributed by the almighty "HUMAN". The only way for the HUMAN to contribute is IF the HUMAN is hoping alone in Christ - then the HUMAN is empowered to contribute. See how it works? No.

Romans 8 makes sense to me with this backdrop. It does. Read it. Don't THINK that you know what it says. You don't. We don't get it. Read it.

18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20For the creation was subjected to futility (yep), not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

The next section of Romans 8 says that NOTHING can separate us from the LOVE of GOD in Christ. Nothing. Not even my mis-placed, idol-driven HOPE.

TO the 2 of you reading this blog - HOPE in CHRIST! Find HIM to be all your joy and peace. FIND in him all that ails you. Find in his touch, glance, blood, tears, cross, empty tomb, & words - your all in all. You can't just do this once...it's a constant LIFE in the Spirit, day to day, moment to moment thing. It's called Christianity. The following verses (below) are the FIRST Scriptures I "pasted in" to this blog page about 2 years ago. Still the truth. Still helpful for us HOPELESS types.

Jeremiah 29 - 10 "For thus says the LORD ... I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise.... 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, ....

Psalm 33 - 2 0 Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. 22 Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

-Cheers!