It looks like I hit a nerve yesterday with my blog post. Several people took the time to comment on the blog, others emailed me and some just stopped me in the hallway at the school pickup line. The tweets and retweets were flying left and right linking people to the blog post (and I even learned how to use my first hashtag, #passionretreat).
Yesterday’s post became the highest viewed post on my blog – and it hasn’t even been up for 24 hours. What does all this mean? It means exactly what I said yesterday: TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN THE PIT.
For too many of us, the pit has become an accepted standard of living – we feel like we can’t get out of it. Nothing we do can free us from it. We fast, we pray, we go to church, we give our tithe, we do everything right. BUT WE’RE STILL LIVING IN THE PIT!
If that’s the song you’re singing, then let me try to point you in a new direction. I can’t solve your problem. I wish I could but I can’t. I can’t give you a “3 step guide to getting out of your pit.” At the retreat, I’ll do my best to break down the subject and delve into it deeper – trying to understand a) what is the pit, b) how do we end up in the pit, c) how do we get out of the pit, and d) how do we STAY out of the pit. We’ll discuss all that at the retreat.
But for now I want to point you in a different direction – the direction of HOPE.
“In you, LORD my God, I put my trust. I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame” Psalm 25:1-2
The real topic of the retreat isn’t about life in the pit (that would stink). The real topic is about life OUTSIDE the pit – or in other words, a LIFE OF HOPE. What a beautiful thought! Hope is a tricky subject. King David says that “no one who hopes in You (the LORD) will ever be put to shame.”
What does that mean? How can he say that? I know people who hope in God but they still live in the pit. They’re unemployed just like the rest of us… or they’re just as lonely… or they struggle just like everyone else. What good is hope now?”
If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit that you’ve either said those words or thought those thoughts at some point in life. We all have. As I said yesterday – that doesn’t make you bad, that makes you human.
So where is hope? Where it is really? Where can I find the hope that David speaks about in Psalm 25? The key is in understanding that our hope is in God, not in a solution to a problem. Being in trials and difficulties doesn’t mean you have to be in a pit. This morning I was reading from Acts 16 – the famous story of Paul and Silas in prison after being beaten with rods. The Bible describes their plight in Acts 16:22-24:
Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Paul and Silas might have been in prison that night, but they certainly weren’t in a pit! Check out the next verse, verse 25: “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”
What is hope? Hope is what allows us to sing while we’re in prison. Hope is what gives us an eternal perspective on life. Hope is what reminds us that the goal of life isn’t to avoid problems, but to avoid the pits that the problems try to lead us into.
You can’t avoid problems: the economy stinks. You are lonely. You are drowning in debt. You can’t defeat that sin. Your marriage is struggling. You can’t avoid problems. But you can find hope to avoid the pit that comes after the problems. The devil’s goal is never to give you a problem; his goal is to get you stuck in a pit of despair after the problem has hit. He’s a sneaky guy isn’t he?
But the good news is this: WE HAVE HOPE! Jesus is our Hope. He is the “hope of us all” as we pray during the Divine Liturgy. He doesn’t give us hope; He is our hope. As long as we have Him (and He’s already promised not to leave us or forsake us, see Deuteronomy 31:6), we have hope. I’m not saying we have a reason to hope. I’m saying WE HAVE HOPE!
Whatever pit you are struggling with right now is nothing in the Hand of your Creator. Stop trying to fight it on your own. Yesterday I outlined a formula of Acknowledge it, Admit it, Address it (to God) and Attack it. That is the strategy, but more importantly is this: let your hope rest firmly on none other than the Most High God Himself.
“In you, LORD my God, I put my trust. I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame” Psalm 25:1-2
Discussion: How would you define hope? What does it mean?