Hopeless or Hope-Filled

Psalm 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.

Shortly after I made the statement - "there's never a dull moment, you never know what can happen," it rang true as we found ourselves resuscitating a patient's wife. A woman in which life just seemed to be too much to handle and overdosed on prescription psychiatric medications in what seems to be an effort to numb the pain and deal with the overwhelming circumstances that had recently come her way. Not only had her husband been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer with no insurance but her son is also facing up to ten years in prison.

A co-worker of mine seemed shaken by the events that took place. This someone is often self-absorbed and could care less about anyone else's problems. However, after this incident and also seeing a woman who has had half of her face removed because of cancer she was abruptly reminded that people have much bigger problems than she. She asked me the question tonight - as she searched within herself - what do you do? How do you deal with life when it is that harsh? I responded that people respond in that way...they take pills, they drink...they do drugs. Why? Because life is sometimes too much to handle...life is difficult....and how can anyone bear it alone? What can fill the void when there is no hope?

People without Christ have no hope. They have no one to turn to. They have no purpose behind the suffering that they endure. They carry the burden alone.

She then asked, "But don't you get mad at God for putting you through all that?" And my answer was yes, you may get mad, yell at God, ask for answers that he doesn't give you, but you still have hope because you know Christ. He will carry your burdens. He will give you a reason for which you suffer.

Those who have no hope run from suffering because it is the stark reminder of their lost state. When all you have is life here on earth - you believe that you deserve heaven while living here. However, when you have heaven to look toward, you realize that while here on earth suffering can be endured.

People around us are hopeless. We are hope-filled.
We must share with those who are hopeless the message of hope that they might one day be hope-filled by experiencing redemption through Jesus Christ.

Life is hard, but God is good.

The Repeat Queen

Philippians 3:13-14, “Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.” HCSB

I am known to be the “Repeat Queen”. Why? Because I love to repeat! I can not just listen to a song that I love just once! I have to listen to it over and over and over again! When I watch a movie that I love, I watch it over and over and over again, even if I’m not sitting at the TV, I just leave it playing while I’m around the apartment. I know it’s crazy, and other than a select few, it typically drives people crazy too! But I still love it!

I have found in life that it is easy to desire the same thing. I often find myself wanting to repeat previous times in my life that seemed so great! We often want to go back to the moment in life when everything seemed so right instead of facing what is going in our lives today. However, in a world that is changing so quickly there is one thing that will never change, time. Time is always moving forward. Our lives are moving forward, and there is no amount of money or success that can change that! We can’t sit down and take our DVR remote and fast forward or rewind or repeat any part of our lives. We only have the moment that is here right now, for right now, because as quickly as it comes, it will quickly go, never to come again.

The song “This Day” written by Lowell Alexander states,

“This day is fragile - soon it will end
And once it has vanished, it will not come again
So let us love with a love pure and strong
Before this day is gone

This day is fleeting when it slips away
Not all our money can buy back this day
So let us pray that we might be a friend
Before this day is gone

This day is frail - it will pass by
So before it’s too late to recapture the time
Let us share love, let us share God
Before this day is gone"

Instead of desiring the past we need to push forward, because as we are striving for what is behind, the present is quickly passing by.