Hope.

My brothers all work in ministry. They are all pastors, of sorts. They can all tell stories of God’s goodness, providence, greatness, and power to save.

But being in ministry can be hard. You see hardships, hear stories, and witness tragedies that you never wanted to see, hear, or witness. All things that should not have been.

For the believer it leaves your heart with this ache. This knowing that the world is not what it was meant to be. We have fallen so far.

In more recent times, they have all had encounters with suicide. The end result of a life its owner thought was worthless.

We can call it selfish, and surely, it probably is. We can call it a tragedy, and we know it is that because it disrupts the right order of things. We can reach out to the members of that person’s family, because they must not have seen it coming either. We can hold candlelight services in faith that the gruesome reality will turn others away from doing the same thing.
But those are all after-effects. Like tremors after an earthquake; the damage is already done, now we just get to feel it again.

Were there things being done BEFORE for that person?

Had they been told they weren’t alone?
I can imagine the only feeling one would have who is contemplating and act like this is hopelessness. The belief that it never will get better. The belief that they have fallen completely to the bottom; completely to the bottom with no way out of the pit.

Church attendance across America is on the downslope. They say it’s a dying industry.

Did you know that?

Something like 70%+ of kids who grew up in church will leave the faith once they go to college.

Did you know that?

There are government supported groups who go into schools and say that the Bible is fallacy.

Did you know that?

There are hopeless people who live in the same town as you. Work in your office. Shop in your grocery stores.

Did you know that?

These are facts I don’t like to think about. I don’t want to believe them. It’s so much easier to keep to my life isn’t it?
You know, my temptation is to fall into pits of overwhelmed-ness. I watch the news and want to cry. I see climbing gas prices and want to cry. I see friends ruining their life even when they know the truth and I want to cry. Or slap them silly. Or both. At the same time.

I see the lost and am overwhelmed with how much I want them to know Jesus.

My heart gets heavy.

I can feel almost hopeless.

But wait a second. If I feel hopeless, how in the world will I ever tell the truly hopeless, i.e. the ones who don’t have Hope yet, that there is HOPE, and HE, because he is the only one who gives hope, He pulled  them out of many deep waters!!!!!????

There must be some disconnect.

People are leaving the church. People are leaving the faith. Our society hates believers. But aren’t we the only ones who actually have HOPE? The believers who have faith who are in church??
What are they not seeing?! What are we not doing?

There is a verse in Psalm 27 that always leaves me a little skeptical. “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Really? But aren’t those people on the news, or the ones who are leaving church, or the “hopeless” ones “the land of the living”?
Where is the goodness, I ask?

I want to ask where David was looking. I imagine that he didn’t live in societies as far gone as ours. And then I remember that his societies were just like mine. We both have temples of pagan worship, whether I call it that or not. Both followed their own desires. Both had corrupt governments. Both had wars.

Yeah, David knew BAD. That whole Psalm, to my surprise, finds David in times I would say are like mine: Tumultuous.

He starts by saying who God is---that God’s character is why he doesn’t fear.

He says that even though he is attacked and besieged he will not fear; he will be confident.
What he asks for is not deliverance. He asks that he may “Dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and seek him in his temple.”
David says that trouble will come, but in God’s dwelling David will find shelter.

 “Your face, O Lord, will I seek.”

“Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.”

 “Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path.”

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”

And I wonder: Am I showing the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, or am I part of the problem?

Will my “taking heart” show his goodness? Is that the key?

Not fearing because I know him.
Seeking his face.
Walking in straight paths.
Being the goodness of the Lord.

What if my goal, our goal, was to everyday prove this verse true to someone? Being goodness with skin on. And that goodness shows that I do not fear because I see his face. I walk in straight paths and dwell in his shelter.

I gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and therefore I can do good in the land of the living.
Show hope to the hopeless, because there, but for the grace of God, go I.

What if we got really bold and prayed that God would bring the hopeless ones across our paths?

Are we willing to do it? Are we willing to get messy?
After all, didn’t he get messy for us?

I assume that most of you reading this have been dragged out of a pit by Jesus. We can say with David, “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of many deep waters,” (Psalm 18:16), or with Paul and say “…I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus TOOK HOLD OF ME.”

Grabbed out of many deep waters.
Or from lives without faith. Lives without hope.
Lives of walking away from the truth even when we KNEW it.
Or from feeling like we were absolutely, hopelessly---alone.
Or from the bottom of pits we thought there was no way out of.

It’s his goodness, wolfies. His goodness. There is no hope outside of it. Not for you, or for me, or that person in your office, or that person in your grocery store, or that other soccer mom, or that person who is leaving your church, or that person at the bottom. There is no hope outside of it.

“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.” (Romans 4:7)

Give THAT Hope to the hopeless.

Be the goodness.
Tell them their sins have been forgiven.