There’s a
great song in Despicable Me 2 by
Pharrell Williams called “Happy”.
Click on the link to hear it. These are some of the lyrics.
“It might seem crazy what
I am 'bout to say
Sunshine she's here, you can take a break
I'm a hot air balloon that could go to space
With the air, like I don't care, baby by the way
Because I'm happy - Clap
along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I'm happy - Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I'm happy - Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I'm happy - Clap along if you feel like that's what you wanna do.”
Happy lyrics © Emi April Music Inc., Emi Blackwood Music
Inc., More Water From Nazareth
Hope is a word that usually brings with it a feeling of happiness. Hope is defined as “a feeling of expectation and
desire for a certain thing to happen” (Oxford Languages). Most of us don’t hope
for bad things or for negative circumstances or experiences that are unpleasant.
So when we say “I hope so” we are anticipating happiness because the thing we
are wanting is going to come to pass. Think about something you are hoping for
right now. Maybe it’s something in the near future. Maybe you have to be
patient for it to happen. Take notice of that positive feeling inside as you
hope for whatever it is you’re hoping for. Now put that thought aside in a
place that you can get to it easily because we are going to come back to it.
However, in order to fully know hope,
we have to know despair.
You’ve
probably heard the notion that to fully know and understand and appreciate the light you have to know the absence of light, darkness. To fully appreciate health,
you have to know what it’s like to be ill. To fully grasp the blessings of
wealth you must know what poverty is like. It is the same with hope.
One of the most despairing realities of the pandemic
has been the fact that many people have died alone. Because many hospitals
could not allow even family members into patient rooms, many of those who were
gravely ill, not only with COVID 19 but with other ailments, have died without
their most precious loved ones by their side. I have never been with someone that
died. I spoke to my dad on the phone just hours before he died, but I wasn’t
able to be there. I was with my grandpa the day before he died. He wasn’t conscious
and would not regain consciousness before he passed away. I’m fortunate to have
not lost many friends or loved ones. I imagine that will change as I continue
to get older. But to know that people died alone during this last year brings
me great sadness.
Have you ever lost your kid in a store? You’re looking
at something in aisle 12 at Home Depot and the next thing you know your child
is not there? There is that moment of despair, panic, and all the horrible
things cram your brain until you explode. Like the situation with the boy in
the picture, it usually turns out to be mostly fine and innocent. Think about moments
of hopelessness in your life that didn’t turn out fine or innocent. Think about
those times you have felt deep despair. How many of those instances revolved
around your feelings of abandonment? I have talked with and hear stories from
many men and women who have said that abandonment has been one of the hardest
things they have ever had to deal with. I don’t know what is a worse feeling, having
felt like you have been abandoned or having caused someone else to feel
abandoned by your actions or lack of action. Maybe you were lost in a store and
couldn’t find your mom or your large family left for vacation and didn’t know
you weren’t in the station wagon. Maybe you had to call off your wedding just
weeks before because he left you and wasn’t coming back. It is a horrible
feeling to feel abandoned. Mental Health professionals make their living counseling
people for whom this issue is the core issue that every other hurt, habit, and
hang-up stem from.
In
Psalm 22:1-2 New Living Translation we read the words of David, a man described
as “a man after God’s own heart.” Yet just like you and me, David had a time in
his life that he felt abandoned. “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why
are you so far away when I groan for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not
answer. Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.” David was really
good at expressing his feelings. I’m glad that he liked to journal because
what we read is the journal of his feelings of abandonment that are much too
familiar to many of us. The Passion Translation says it this way, “God, my God! Why would you
abandon me now” (Psalm 22:1 TPT)?
David begins this journal entry crying out to God with
intense feelings of abandonment and goes on to describe the experiences
surrounding this abandonment. “But
I am like a worm, crushed and bleeding crimson, treated as less than human. I’ve
been despised and scorned by everyone! Mocked by their jeers, despised with
their sneers, as all the people poke fun at me, spitting their insults, saying,
“Is this the one who trusted in God? Now let’s see if Yahweh will come to your
rescue! Let’s see how much he delights in him” (vs. 6-8)!” He talks about every
joint in his body being pulled apart. He describes being so parched and thirsty
that his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth. He paints a picture of his
hands and feet being pierced and of being torn at by a band of evil men
surrounding him like a pack of dogs. And in verse 18 he says, “With a toss of
the dice they divide my clothes among themselves, gambling for my garments!”
Has anyone ever said to you that Jesus knows what you’re
going through? Has it ever felt shallow or insensitive? I have to admit that
those kinds of words often fall onto deaf ears because of the overwhelming
feelings we carry during a difficult time. But it doesn’t make them not true.
Jesus even knew abandonment at a disparaging level. For it was at His moment of
death He felt abandoned by His Father, just like many patients in hospitals
felt during this last year.
Today is what is
called “Good Friday.” It is an odd label because it is actually the day
commemorating the death of Jesus Christ. One might think it would be better
labeled “Black Friday” but I guess that’s already taken. While death is
horrible, and Christ’s death by means of crucifixion was one of the most
horrifying ways to die, Christians know it to be good because it is what has
reconciled us to God. But what I want to connect you to here is the despairing
emotions Jesus Himself experienced, the feeling of abandonment.
1000
years before Jesus died, David wrote the very words that Jesus chose to use as
He himself hung dying. Matthew 27:45 records “Jesus shouted with a mighty voice
in Aramaic, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” “My God, My God, why have you abandoned
me?”” Jesus was experiencing the very actions and events that David wrote about
so long ago. There are so many details matching what
happened to and around
Jesus at the time of His death it is as though David had been there 1000 years
earlier. Those descriptions I presented earlier from David’s journal all happened
as Jesus was put to death on an old rugged cross. David even closes Psalm 22
with another
quotation of Jesus on the cross: “It is finished” (vs. 31)! If you read the gospel accounts for yourself, you will find all of these details. Look at
Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19. It’s all there.
I told you I would come back to that feeling of
happiness and hope you thought about a moment ago. In fact, in last week’s blog
I promised something full of hope and happiness. I
promised to tell you how I
know God will NEVER abandon you. If we stopped at the crucifixion, I couldn’t
do it. If David had stopped journaling with Psalm 22, I couldn’t do it. But as
evangelist Tony Campolo said years ago, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!” There
is more to the story.
Chapter
23 of Psalms is often called the Shepherd Psalm because David was a shepherd
at the time that he wrote that part of his journal. I think it would better
called “The Sheep Psalm,” because in this famous journal entry, David has
resolved the issues of abandonment as he opens with “The Lord is my
shepherd; I have all that I need” (Ps. 23:1 NLT). Many of you once memorized
this timeless piece of comfort and hope. David speaks of “He” meaning God
Himself,
as providing rest, streams of water to replenish, renewed strength, guidance,
protection, and comfort. He talks about a party that God throws and a ritual
God performs actually making the him who once felt abandoned, now feel presentable and
ready to enjoy overflowing beverages and blessings. He closes this entry with “Surely
Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever
(Ps. 23:6). That is not the journal entry of someone abandoned. Regardless of
what David felt when he wrote Psalm 22, it is more than obvious that he
realized he was not abandoned and that God is pursuing him with goodness and unfailing
love forever. Beyond this life, David has the hope and assurance of being with
the Lord forever in the next. He understands that the Good Shepherd has laid
His life down for the sheep, of which he is one.
If
that is not enough proof, that Good Shepherd, Jesus, after dying on that Friday
and being laid in a borrowed tomb, arose from the dead, proof of which is given
by eyewitness accounts and can be further corroborated with other historical writing
besides scripture. Rising from the dead is not congruent with abandonment when
God is the only one with the power to raise the dead. Christ’s feelings of
abandonment on the cross were Him taking the consequences of my sinful life so that
I would never, ever be abandoned. Had Christ not risen and stayed in the tomb,
I could not say to you today that God will NEVER abandon you. But Easter morning
represents the single most important act in human history and provides the
assurance once and for all that we are not only NOT abandoned by God, but that
we shall dwell with Him in community for all of eternity.
So
as the great storyteller, Paul Harvey would say, “And now you know the rest of
the story!” Now, back to that feeling of hope and the happiness that
accompanies it. There is a great song made popular by Jon Reddick and Mandisa called
“You Keep Hope Alive.”
You can click on the link and listen, but there is a lyric that I want to point
out to you. It says “Hope in the sorrow, Hope for this moment, My hope for
tomorrow.” Jesus is The Hope and God will NEVER abandon you. In fact, He is
ALWAYS with you and you will be with Him forever. The New Testament writer, Paul, assures us of that with these words of contentment from God, "I will never fail you. I will never abandon you."
Remember,
the Good Shepherd has laid down His life for the sheep. If you are a
Christ-follower, you are one of those sheep. If you are not yet a
Christ-follower, what is keeping you from becoming one, one of His sheep? I’d
love to have that conversation with you if you are interested. Until then, let’s
end this discussion with hope and happiness. Watch this: Beep Beep I'm a Sheep (feat.
TomSak &BlackGryph0n)
Thanks
for reading,
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