#18 Hope JAN-15-2010 #19 i I GET KNOCKED DOWN FEB 2009

#18                                 Hope                                                 1/15/2010

Last Sunday Aaron Rogers lead the Green Bay Packers back from a twenty-one point deficit to tie the Arizona Cardinals and send the first round playoff game into overtime at 45-45 a piece.  Ready to celebrate a miraculous come from behind victory, My son Josh and I barely had time to shift in our chairs before the Cardinals blitzed on the first series, forcing a fumble they ran in for a score to suddenly end the game. Josh sat there in disbelief trying to fathom the swing of fortunes that had occurred in those brief seconds of sudden-death overtime. Like any die-hard Packer fan, the end of the season without a Super Bowl ring is something that for Josh requires considerable emotional adjustment and, sometimes, professional counseling. Trying to encourage him, I remarked that the team is very young and that summer training camp for the 2010 season is just six months away. Like any of his fellow cheese-heads, his face lit up with that ‘this-is-the-year’ twinkle in his eye.

Almost thirty years ago I tapped the brakes on the 1800 Oliver tractor as I rolled into the field just North of the farmhouse and lowered the four-bottom plow to the ground. Shifting to third gear and adjusting the throttle, I let out the clutch and pointed the faded green machine toward a landmark to make that first furrow as straight as I could.  Within a few feet the damp, organic aroma of freshly turned soil enveloped me upon my mechanical perch. That potent perfume made my head swim with dreams of bumper crops and paid-in-full accounts. Like every other farmer dropping a plow into the earth that day, I was convinced that,  ‘This will be the year!’

                                                          Isaiah 40

²⁸ Do you not know?
       Have you not heard?
       The LORD is the everlasting God,
       the Creator of the ends of the earth.
       He will not grow tired or weary,
       and his understanding no one can fathom.

²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
       and increases the power of the weak.

³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
       and young men stumble and fall;

³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
       will renew their strength.
       They will soar on wings like eagles;

I wonder if Isaiah had a couple bad years too? Maybe 689 and 688 BC were like 2008 & 2009 and the I-guy was looking forward to 687 being a lot better just like we Hope 2010 will be better for us. We know that the apostle Paul was shipwrecked three times, twice beaten, stoned [the with rocks kind] and jailed; he had to have a couple years he’d like to forget. Certainly he started each year Hoping he shake that ‘thorn in the flesh’ thing this next year. He wrote:

Romans 5:2-6 

2… And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Even the Psalmist had some bad times he Hoped would be forgotten and replaced by a better year ahead. Through it all, David was certain of where or should I say in whom to put his Hope.

Psalm 33

¹⁶ No king is saved by the size of his army;
       no warrior escapes by his great strength.

¹⁷ A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
       despite all its great strength it cannot save.

¹⁸ But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him,
       on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

¹⁹ to deliver them from death
       and keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ We wait in hope for the LORD;
       he is our help and our shield.

²¹ In him our hearts rejoice,
       for we trust in his holy name.

²² May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD,
       even as we put our hope in you.

This is a great lesson for me if I Hope 2010 will be better. Any expectation of improvement is in vain if I keep my Hope placed in the same things that failed me these last couple years. Lets go back and talk with King David one more time:

Psalm 130

¹ Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;

² O Lord, hear my voice.
       Let your ears be attentive
       to my cry for mercy.

³ If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
       O Lord, who could stand?

⁴ But with you there is forgiveness;
       therefore you are feared.

⁵ I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
       and in his word I put my hope.

⁶ My soul waits for the Lord
       more than watchmen wait for the morning,
       more than watchmen wait for the morning.

⁷ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
       for with the LORD is unfailing love
       and with him is full redemption.

The Hebrew writer chimes in with his assurance of Hope in God’s promises and the testimony of the life of The Christ:

Hebrews 6

19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.

This time the whole Hope thing gets a lot bigger than the economy and making this months mortgage payment. Forgiveness and redemption-Eternal Hope-trump all my worries on this little orb. This Hope is built on a foundation that cannot be shaken or even cracked by the forces exerted upon me. Perhaps the outcome of 2010 depends more on where or in whom I Hope than any event-good or bad-that may occur.

Let me leave you with a fitting benediction of Hope from our friend the Roman writer:

Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

        #19      I get knocked down but I get up again           2/15/9

A couple Sundays ago a forty year old quarterback was knocked to the carpet in the Superdome so many times that the viewers began reaching for Advil so they could continue witnessing that physical beating.  But he kept getting back up. One time he had his legs twisted like pretzels beneath him as two defensive players brutally hit him with uncanny coordination. Two teammates rushed to his side to help him off the field and the next time we saw him he was sitting on the medical cart looking as though his game, and maybe, finally, his career was over. But he got back up.  There was a stupid song a couple years ago that came to my mind and the shade-tree TV producer in me called for it as background music every time they showed him collecting himself after another bone-jarring collision.

I get knocked down but I get up again, Your never gonna keep me down…

Chumbawamba Tubthumping Lyrics

Like most songs that become popular, this one was repetitive and celebrated bad behavior but it sure would have worked in the telecast. So why was Favre’s performance so remarkable? We expected the touchdown passes, the enthusiasm and impressive record setting statistics but we were fascinated by his gritty refusal to quit.

          Last week was a workweek at my cabin and a friend came up to help out and spend some time away from his toils and troubles. He has been knocked down repeatedly in the last few years. He is a recent cancer survivor and just had a pacemaker installed because the chemo-therapy destroyed the electronics in his heart. Then a whole bunch of extra trouble just starts to pile up after that. The mounting medical costs, being unable to continue at his job, and the burden of helping out family members has decimated his finances. Now fifty-seven years old, he may lose his home before the year is out and he has no options to replace the lost income. But he keeps getting back up.

 If I was inspired by an athlete getting paid millions to perform in that arena, I am in awe of my friend who manages to put one foot in front of the other each day. Another guy went through lots of rough times so he let us know we are not alone in this, we are to cheer others as they rise to their feet and there is a community there to stand with us.

2 Corinthians 1 (The Message translation)

 ^3-5All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

 ^6-7When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it.

Paul cheers us on as we get back to our feet and clues us in on God’s purposes at work in our hard times.

2 Corinthians 4 (The Message translation)

 ^1-2Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we're not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times….

 …^7-12If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. As it is, there's not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we're not much to look at. We've been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we're not demoralized; we're not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we've been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn't left our side; we've been thrown down, but we haven't broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus' sake, which makes Jesus' life all the more evident in us. While we're going through the worst, you're getting in on the best!

 ^13-15We're not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, "I believed it, so I said it," we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God's glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!

 ^16-18So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever.

I am guilty of focusing on the troubles in my life; the ones I see each and every day. As Paul would say, I am the “chiefest of sinners” for whining about the things that keep knocking me to the ground.  What I want to do is get back up and find some one else who needs a hand and give it to them. If I can do this, then my troubles disappear, my friend is encouraged and, together, we can look for another to pull back up to his feet.  Just as my friend inspires me with his refusal to be knocked down for the count, there are folks watching you right now who need inspiration in their lives and are waiting to see what you will do.