I have been talking about 10 earthly
lessons for heavenly life on earth. Today's lesson is about what the
earth teaches us about hope.
Considering what has been happening in
this country this week it is an appropriate lesson to learn. But it
is so hard to preach about hope when there is such feelings of
hopelessness all around. You saw videos of brutal killings of two
black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. Both were heart wrenching to
watch. How do we speak about hope to the families of those victims?
How do we talk about hope to the African Americans in this country
who think that racism is alive and well 50 years after civil rights
bill was signed? How do we talk about hope to the police officers
who have to go out there every day to do a very difficult job in such
hopeless situations?
What happens when we lose hope as
individuals and as a nation? Hopelessness leads to despair, which
leads to desolation, which leads of destruction which leads to
death. Without hope, life is scary and meaningless. Without hope,
life will spiraling into a hell hole of anger and frustration.
I run a weekly grief support group.
Every week someone will complain about the insensitive things people
say to the bereaved. There are a list of things you don't say to a
grieving person. “He is in a better place.” “You will get thru
it, be strong.” “Cheer up everything is going to be okay.”
“Everything happens for a reason, life goes on;.” “God never
gives us more than we can handle.”
Through each of these statements,
people are trying to offer hope, but they don't work. That is why
it is so hard to preach a sermon on
hope. Because whatever you say to someone who is in the middle of a
hopeless situation, is not going to stick. It will be taken more as a
cliche than comfort.
Few months ago, I was counseling this
woman who had suddenly lost her job. She is a single parent with two
children. Her daughter is a freshman at Marquet University and her
son is in a local high school. She has no family in this country. She
had a job making 50k a year and suddenly one day, she was let go. It
was more than the loss of income; It was loss of self-esteem, loss
of purpose, loss of dignity. She began visualizing her car being
repossessed, being evicted from her apartment, having no money to put
food on the table...She felt totally hopeless and was in a panic
mode. It is very hard to be with a person who is losing hope.
Similar scenarios of hopelessness are
felt by people all the time, in all places. It could be loss of job,
loss of life of a loved one, getting a terminal diagnosis, getting
into a serious accident, termination of a relationship, end of a
marriage, end of a dream,
The scenarios are endless. I am sure
you had situations in your life when you felt beaten down in life
and felt helpless and hopeless.
How did you survive those situations?
How did you keep hope alive? Scripture passages can be helpful, but
unless you trust what the bible says on a gut level it is not going
to make any difference.
For example, to the woman I was
counseling, I talked about Mathew Chapter 7 where Jesus talks about
God taking care of the birds of the air and clothing the lilies of
the field but she was not convinced.
“Yes, but...When you are
trying to give hope to some one, there is always , YES, but...
Years ago when I was feeling so down
and out in my spiritual journey, I had a talk with my spiritual
director. He said: “I have good news and bad news for you.”
The bad news is that life is a
continuum of plateaus, peaks and valleys that goes on and on and on
until you die.” And the good news is that “life is a
continuum of plateaus, peaks and valleys that goes on and on an on
until you die.”
The point is that, regardless of how
you choose to see it, life is a journey, a cycle of ups and downs and
in-betweens, and you will never get to the ups without the downs,
that you are guaranteed to go through some valleys before you get to
the top of the mountain. That is reality; there is no way around it.
The sooner you get used to that idea, hope will spring in your lives.
The problem is that we like to stay on
the peak all the time, living a life with no hassles, or
frustrations, or set backs, or failures, or disappointments, or
losses, or death. But the reality is that life is full of
unpleasant experiences and painful feelings, such as despair,
depression, isolation, loneliness and fear.
In spiritual language such
experiences are called the dark night of the soul.
St. John of the cross is the saint who
made that phrase famous by describing his own strenuous spiritual
journey. Mother Teresa who the world considers the greatest saint of
modern times talked abut being abandoned by God and losing hope
several times in her life. But she stuck with God.
This is why the 7th earthly
lesson is so important.
What does the earth teach us about
hope?
What is the earthly lesson about
dealing with the dark night of the soul?
Look at the surface of the earth. It is true that
unless we make a conscious decision to meditate about our planet, we
don't see more than what is around us. We live in Coral Springs,
Florida and we see the area around us. Our thoughts don't usually go
beyond our usual surroundings. 70 percent of the earth's surface is
water. Of the renaming 30%, one third is barren desert with no sign
of life or solace.
But it is also true that there is always oasis even in
the middle of a desert. As inhabitants of this planet, we should
expect periods of desert-like experiences when nothing goes right:
our plans are thwarted, our goals are undermined, dreams are lost and
we feel like spinning our wheels with no hope. During such times, we
should remember that there is always oasis in deserts and light at
the end of the tunnel.
Which brings me to consider another truth about the
earth. Every day, the earth goes into darkness for a few hours. We
have this expression, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But actually we
only have about 12 hours a day,
depending on day light saving time, it fluctuates, but we don't have
24 hours of day...almost half of of it is night. It is pitch dark.
Being in the dark on a regular basis is part and
parcel of living on earth.
Darkness is necessary for rest, regeneration,
regrouping and rejuvenation of life. You cannot avoid it. You cannot
get around it. It is necessary for our very survival.
But the good thing about experiencing darkness is that
the light is surely on its way. It is 100% guaranteed that the sun
will come up and it will be day again.
As earthlings, we should expect nothing less when we
face hopelessness in our lives. The clouds will move away and the
sun will shine again. It is true that when we go through hard times,
it will feel like the sky is falling. Around the clock cable
channels and pontificating pundits don't help. The explosion of
social media postings can be good and bad. The whole media sensation
can cause anxiety, fear and hopelessness. But we know that the sky
never falls down. When the clouds move away as they always do, the
sky is bright again.
We know that day always follows night—all the time
in all places.
Biblical hope is very similar to this earthly lesson.
If you stick with God, a positive outcome is guaranteed..there is no
ifs and buts about it—to stick with God, when there is no human
rationale to do that. It comes from the conviction that “If God is
with us who can be against us (Rom 8.31)
The Christian has a hope that is “the assurance of
things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1)
We see assurance and conviction playing out in all the
so-called hopeless situations in the Bible. In Noah's time, after 40
days and 40 nights of hopelessness, the torrential rain finally ended
and the land was restored. For Abraham and Sarah, a barren life of
childless life was restored with the birth of Issac. For the
Israelite, 40 years of suffering in Egypt ended with the exodus and
entrance into promised land.
Look at Jesus, when he was crucified and buried like a
criminal, all hope was lost. But as we know, death was defeated and
he rose again from the darkness of the grave. Hope sprang up again in
the hearts of the dispirited disciples.
Letter to the Hebrews talks about the nature of such
hope. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and
secure.” (6.19)
So biblical hope is not superficial; it is not
wishful thinking; it is not “I hope so;” It is not “maybe, may
be not;” It is not about a “50/50 chance”.
It is an “anchor for the soul.” Think of the anchor
of a big ship that holds it in place when the waters are raging all
around it. There is a 90 mile an hour storm hitting the ship. The
waves are ferocious. There is a lot of tossing and shaking, but the
ship stays in place because of the anchor.
That is what it feels like when you are in a hopeless
situation, with emotional storms all around. That is when hope
functions as “anchor for your soul.”
There are several scripture passages that talk about
hope. The one I like the most, the one phrase that helps me get
through some painful, hopeless situations is in Psalm 23. “Yea,
though I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil
for Thou art with me.”
I want you to pay attention to a key phrase, “Walk
through”
It says, Yea though I “walk thru” the valley of the shadow of death. It doesn't say Yea tho I “end up” in the valley, or “stay” in the valley, “stuck” in the valley...or “trapped in the valley” but “walk through” the valley.
Our problem is that when we are in a valley—a
hopeless situation, we get stuck there through our constant
recriminations, and feelings of anger, anxiety and hopelessness.
Instead of “walking through
the valley” which implies movement, and change and journey,
we build a condo and stay there. We sit there and marinate in our
misery.
That
goes against the rule and ethos of the earth. The earth keeps moving,
bringing us day and night, light and darkness, rain and shine. If it
says in one place, we would be dead.
integrate
the ebb and flow of the earth into your life. Accept the ethos of
the earth. You will have a much better time living on the earth. In
fact, you will experience heaven on earth.
So,
walk through the inevitable and unavoidable valleys of life knowing
that God is holding on to your hand. You are not holding on to God,
God is holding on to you.
What
is the difference if you are holding on to God or God is holding on
to you. The equation seems to be the same. No. If YOU are doing the
holding, you could lose the grip for a variety of reasons: you could
feel tired, you could fall down, you could lose the grip, or lose
hope and let go of the hand of God. But if GOD is doing the holding,
He is never going to let go. Even if you fall down, He is going to
pick you up. That is why the psalm says: Yea tho....Thou art with
me, not “I am with you.”
Think
of the image of the good shepherd in psalm 23. It is not being
dragged by the shepherd from behind. The shepherd is not beating the
sheep in front of him to tend them in a specific direction. The sheep
is being carried on the shoulders of the shepherd. It is safety,
security, and ultimate protection from all the elements and enemies.
That
is the image of God I want you to have in your mind every time, you
feel down and out, angry, frustrated, helpless and hopeless.
Even
tho I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou are with me!
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