When All Hope is Gone
Dr. D. Robert Chance
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;they will run and not grow weary,they will walk and not be faint.
Isaiah 40:30-31 / NIV
Theme: There are times when we all find ourselves feeling hopeless, abandoned by God. In such times we find hope, and strength for the journey by remembering that God is with us and that knowing that God is the everlasting God who is always with us.
“All Hope is Gone”
“On Thursday I made this deal with my father that if he stayed in the mental hospital for 30 more days and really got some help, stopped drinking and straightened up I would send him a gift package with some goodies in it (some sweats, crosswords, smokes and a few other things that would help pass the time). He said okay but that I had to send it overnight because he was almost out of smokes and he wasn’t going to stay if he didn’t have smokes.
I wrapped everything up with x-mas wrap and while I was doing this Friday he called and was acting really kind of mean, it made me feel like I didn’t even want to send him the stuff but I figured if it was going to get him to stay there and get some help it was worth it. I sent it overnight like he told me (which was expensive) and as soon as that package was mailed he told me he was leaving the hospital Monday (today). You have no idea how pissed I was and am. I just don’t know what I can do about it.
It was only a week ago that I was ready to turn off the 800# and stop talking to him all together because of the way that he has been talking to me. I feel like I am right back where I was only I am out another $200 and he had the nerve to ask me if I would buy him a bike. Admittedly I had offered to buy him a bike if he stayed in the hospital and stayed on the medication after he got out. He only stayed in an extra 2 days and that was just so he could get the package I think. I feel used.
While he was in there he had a phone that accepted incoming calls, I told his brother and sister and my brother too but none of them called him. This really made him mad and he took it out on me but it really showed me something. Other people just don’t bother with him. They don’t care, they don’t call, they don’t worry and they don’t have to deal with him causing them grief. Why can’t I do this?
When I went to see my shrink last week she told me that I have to look at it like a stalker, now that I have given him money and answered his calls I have to worry about what will happen when I stop answering his calls and stop giving him money. I had stopped sending him anything for a long time, it wasn’t until I thought he was going to get help that I sent him this package.
I don’t want to answer the phone when he calls anymore, I don’t want to worry about him, I don’t want to care….but I am not that kind of person. I care too much about everyone not to care if he is okay or not. It makes it even harder that he is my father. I almost think that he knows this about me, but I could be giving him too much credit.
Now that he is back out on the street I have to wonder what is going to happen. I know the cycle that he goes through and he always ends up in jail about a month from now. I don’t know if I want to put myself through that. I don’t want to feel guilt and send him money while he is in there. The good news is that he can’t call me collect from jail with my phone service. So, if he went in I would only know because I wouldn’t get anymore calls from him.
I guess I have vented enough for now. I have to find something to keep me busy now. Jemal bought me a great PS2 Poker game to play that really numbs the mind and kills time. I love it! I think it’s time for some of that now.”
Posted by Kelle on the World Wide Web on December 12, 2005 11:13 AM |
Comments:
“I simply typed “when all hope is gone” into my browser…I landed here. I so relate with your frustration. Caring for a family member who is dying, in my home, for three years and he had the nerve to report me and my husband for abuse. This is a person who’s other family members will have nothing to do with him. We are all he has and he has betrayed our trust. His betrayal seems to end, but out of the blue, he strikes again…and again…and again…Thanks for letting me vent. I feel all hope is gone. But how do you abandon a dying family member and retain your good conscience? “
Posted by: Shelly | January 20, 2006 07:39 AM
I. Truth is, we all feel hopeless some times.
We all know the feeling.
There are times in our life when all hope is gone.
There are times when we are out of resources, drained, running on empty.
There are times when life doesn’t seem to be worth living.
* Maybe, like Kelle we have a family member who has just drained the life out of us.
* Or, maybe we have messed up so big time that redemption seems unlikely and far far away.
* Or, maybe we out of money, faced with bills that seem overwhelming, about to lose our house, bills besieging us as if the end of the world has come.
* Or, maybe we just plain feel tired. I’ve felt that lately. Tired of constant complaining from people. Tired of the nit picking that seems to go on. Tired of doing what I call the “Ricky Ricardo” all the time – “splaining to Lucy”.
Sometimes, I wonder if people ever stop to think how blessed we are, how good we have it and what it must look like to God when he gives us so much and all we do is whine and look for things to complain about.
We all feel it sometimes; hopeless.
That’s just the context in which the scripture for today takes place .
If I had to pick just one chapter in all the Bible as my favorite passage it might just be Isaiah 40. There is so much there. Isaiah 40 is part of what the scholars call “Duetero isaiah”. It is the second major section of the book of Isaiah, written approximately 540 B.C. It was written during the Babylonian captivity period.
We can imagine how the people felt.
They were conquered, vanquished, then taken off into captivity. Ripped from their homeland, families torn apart, women raped, men killed, children ripped from their mother’s arms.
After years in captivity they were dejected.
They were hopeless.
II. Remember, that we too are wise to avoid being cynical or pessismistic.
In the midst of their hopelessness, the great prophet Isaiah reminds the Hebrews that their God is the creator of heaven and earth.
All things are in his hands.
He is everlasting. Before the moon ever was or the stars of the sky were put in place God was there.
He is eternal. Kingdoms will come and go, nations will rise and fall, time itself will fade away but God will remain.
Nothing is impossible for God.
The people are warned against cynicism.
They are told not to become pessimistic.
They are reminded not to think that God has forgotten them or worse yet abandoned them.
Such lessons are good for us to remember in the midst of our times of despondency. Such a remembrance serves us well when we feel pessimistic or all alone.
Such a call does us well to hear when the drums of cynicism are beating in the forest of our own heart.
The very first step we need to take when confronted with the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness in our own lives is to not surrender to the negative in our own heart.
The very first danger to overcome when we feel all alone is to not yield to the night.
The very first song not to sing is “O Woe Is Me”.
The very first party to reject the invitation to is the “Pity Party” that the devil wants to invite us to.
Cynicism is a nasty thing.
When we become cynical we stop believing.
When we become cynical we abandon all hope.
When we become cynical we surrender to the worse within us.
When we become cynical we become even more vulnerable to bad circumstances around us.
Do not surrender to cynicism.
Nor, should we think others don’t care.
Nor should we think God has abandoned us.
Nor does it do us any good to yield to the temptation of throwing in the towel.
III. In times of despair the Bible teaches us to remember that the eternal God is with us. He knows our pain, he loves us and he will restore us, one way or the other, in the end, God and God’s goodness prevail.
1. First, the Bible teaches us to remember only God is eternal.
All else comes and goes.
All else dies.
All else is like grass – it grows in the morning only to die in the evening.
But God is eternal.
When we are long gone God will still be here.
2. Secondly, the Bible teaches us to remember that He is our God. He knows us. He cares for us. He loves us. We are the sheep of his pasture, the flock of his land.
We are God’s not in the sense that somehow we are above any other people or that we have special rights and privileges that other of God’s children don’t have but in the sense that all of those who open themelves to God become His and will be under the shadow of His wings.
We are never alone.
We are never abandoned.
While we may feel alone in the dark of the night the truth is God is always with us.
God has chosen to let us live our own lives.
He could keep us from sorrow and despair but to do would be to somehow keep us from being fully alive, fully human. Instead of keeping us from sorrow and tragedy God gives us the strength to overcome it. Instead of preventing hopelessness from looming over us as some sort of vulture about to consume us God teaches us that in remembering Him, and in trusting Him we will prevail.
But we have to wait on God.
We have to be patient.
We have to know that time is in His hands – not ours.
We have to learn to trust in God.
Our strength is not in ourselves but in God.
Our strength is not in man but in God.
Our strength is not in the kingdoms of this world but in God’s kingdom.
3. Third, the Bible teaches us to remember the law of lift when overcome with despair.
In order to fly we need to understand the principles of aerodynamics – spiritual aerodynamics that is.
To soar as Eagles we must let God provide the lift for our wings.
To soar above our hopelessness and despair we must wait on the Lord and fly on His wings – not our own.
To get beyond our hopeless we do the best we can, with what we have, and where we are – but always waiting on and responding to the eternal, timeless God for our strength and comfort.
When we do our part, we can always depend on God doing His part.
It is in God we find our hope.
It is in God we find our strength.
It is in God we trust.
Strength for the journey,
Hope for the despair,
Life in the midst of death comes from remembering that all things come and go but the Lord is forever.
He is our hope.
He is our love.
He is our strength.
Closing…
I remember times in my own life when life felt pretty hopeless and pretty useless.
* times when I felt abandoned by God.
* times when God seemed absent, if existent at all.
* times when it all seemed so useless.
A Buck Eight Five and A Piece of Cherry Pie…
I remember a time when I was a boy and after a particularly difficult argument with my parents I ran away from home. I hitch hiked to my aunt and uncles home in Columbus, Ohio. It was a distance of some 500 miles, I was 16 years old, and ran away in the dark of the night with little money, bitter tears running down my face and the coat of despair draped over my young shoulders. After buying a bus ticket to Hagerstown, MD, I had a buck eight five left in my pocket. I felt hopeless. I felt overwhelmed. I felt as if God had abandoned me. To make along story short, I got off the bus in Hagerstown, and started hitchhiking in the dark of the night. A car pulled over and the man behind the wheel asked me where I was going. Going…going? When you are running away you aren’t going anywhere – you’re leaving. I asked him where he was headed – he told me he was going down to Beckley W.Va. That’s where I was going – Beckley. He arrived wherever he was going and I got out and wandered the streets of some small little burb outside Beckley. It was now in the wee hours of the morning and I found a small coffee shop that open. I spent the last of my money on a piece of Cherry pie. Funny isn’t it how we remember the most minute of details in such times. I can’t tell you what I ate for dinner last week but I will always remember a buck eighty five and a piece of Cherry pie. After eating the pie, I went out into the dark, cold night of a strange place with more danger around me than I could have known as a 16 year old boy. After walking toward the outskirts of town a policeman pulled over and picked me up. He wanted to know who I was and where I was going. He asked me where I was from. “Severna Park”, I said. I don’t know why I said Severna Park – I guess I didn’t want him to know who I was or where I was from. He wanted some I.D. I showed him my driver’s license and he noticed it said my address was Oxon Hill. I quickly and patiently explained to him that Oxon Hill was a suburb of Severna Park. Good thing he didn’t know his Maryland geography. He took me to the edge of town and put me out on the highway. I guess if anything was going to happen to me all he cared about was that it didn’t happen on his watch or in his town.
I started thumbing again. I caught a ride with a group of guys who had stolen a hot car and I was scared to death as they raced around the narrow West Virginia roads and up and down the mountains. At some point, I said I had enough and put me out. They were busy with their own mischief and could have cared less. They pulled over, tires smoking, radio blaring, rubber burning and I got out. I don’t know where I got out. It was nowhere. The sun was beginning to come up. Long story short, I caught one short ride after another until I ended up along Route 70 West in Zenia, Ohio. To this day I can still spot the exact spot I got out of one car and wearily put my thumb out again. I ended up, after a series of rides with a variety of people getting out about 2 or 3 miles from where my Aunt Bette and Uncle Red lived. I wasn’t even sure where they lived but miracle of miracles I found it and I think they had been called by my parents and alerted to the possibility of my coming there. They were happy and relieved to see me standing at their door.
It had been 24 hours of one horror after another. The story is true, I’ve cleaned up and skipped over some of the details – to as they used to say on T.V. shows “to protect the innocent”. The story is a metaphor.
I’ve been there.
I’ve felt homeless.
I’ve felt helpless.
I’ve felt hopeless.
I’ve stood in the deep, cold darkness of the night as a stranger in a far away place with no friends.
That wasn’t the only time I’ve been hopeless in my life. No, not by a long shot.
That wasn’t the only time I’ve felt the cold hand of despair on my shoulders.
In the end it worked out alright.
In the end I got on a plane and for $30 flew back to my parents and to my home.
In the end I lived to see another day.
But I learned something.
I have learned in life that in the darkest, wee hours of the night when despair looms all around me not to surrender to the dark within my own soul.
I have learned in life that the biggest danger on the road of life isn’t all the circumstances and all the people outside of me but the devil of despair and hopelessness within me.
Most of all I have learned in life to keep thumbing, keep moving, keep trying to get to a good place, a place where there are people who know me and love me and who will open the door and say “come on home, son – we’ve been expecting you”.
I have learned in life that when we hang in there and continue to do the best we can God will be with us.
I have learned in life to wait on God, and to trust in God.
I have learned over and over in life, in one time of hopelessness or another that when we wait on the Lord and trust in Him, we will prevail.
I have learned over and over in life that more than prevail when we trust in God we will soar as on Eagle’s wings; we shall run and not grow weary.
Oh… I also learned how good a piece of cherry pie can taste when your famished!