“And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.” Psalm 39:7

Matthew and I recently watched the movie, “Deepwater Horizon” on Netflix. It’s a movie about the 2010 BP debacle that left eleven oil rig employees dead and 4.9 million barrels of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

It was a difficult movie to watch. I mean those were real lives affected. The poor decisions of a few leaders trying to save a bit of money led to the largest catastrophe of its kind in human history. Yet none of those leaders wanted it to happen, and they put their hope in the fact that it wouldn’t despite warnings from more learned people than themselves.

One of my favorite lines from the movie was this. “Hope is not a strategy”. You see, the BP executive had sent the oil well inspectors away without allowing them to properly inspect the well for safety. It was going to be a costly inspection, and they were planning on pulling out from that drill site soon anyway. The BP executive decided to just hope for the best and save the company some money. Preliminary tests all looked good, but the experienced drillers on the rig all knew the inspections were needed.

After watching this movie and connecting so much with that line about hope, I started thinking about the role that hope plays in our lives. We all have hopes. I find myself hoping for lots of things. But is hope a strategy? Most of the time, I don’t think it is.

Let’s say you own your own business and you want to grow that business to be more profitable. You narrow your options down to two plans for growth. One plan will likely be more successful, but you are unsure as to which one that is. So you decide to add hope to one. Will merely adding hope to one of the plans improve its chance for success? I don’t think so.

Okay, look at it this way. Financially, things are tough. There is often more month than money in your account. You are really hoping for enough money to be able to pay your bills this month. Is that hope going to be enough to change your circumstance, and see more money come in to your account? No. It really isn’t.

You see, hope presumes on a future that only exists in our minds and in our… hopes. The past is gone. The future does not yet exist. The only moment we have is this one. We can have hope for things in the future, but what does that really do? Can hope really be a strategy? I can hope for grandchildren one day, but does that mean my hope will ensure I get them? I can hope my neck stops looking more and more like a chicken’s, but will that hope restore the worn out collagen in my skin?

In only one context that I can think of, can hope be a strategy. We have to change the preposition associated with hope. Instead of hoping for things, we hope in something… more specifically, in someone. As believers, when we put our hope IN Christ, that makes all the difference. When we change the preposition, we aren’t presuming on the future, but trusting in the One who is able and holds our future. 

When we put our hope in Christ, we can stand on the promise that he will give us the desires of our hearts, because now we are called according to His purpose. When we walk in the purpose He has for us, then our hopes are not wishes… they are the foundation for the steps we take to fulfill our purpose. We have the confidence to form the strategies that will see our hopes in Christ realized.

We inspect the well. We budget our money. We begin interviewing potential wives for our sons and husbands for our daughters so that we can have those grandchildren before we are living in an old folk’s home, too old and demented to enjoy them.

Sigh… Anyway…

As believers, Christ is the great hope that we have. It’s the only place where hope has any teeth, and the only context where it is a strategy. King David hoped for many things, but he knew the best place he could put his hope was in the Lord. Jesus is the only real hope we have.

 

 

It all started a very long, long, LONG time ago. The garden was lush and green, but not just green. No, there were flowers and leaves of every color imaginable. Life in this place was the kind from which dreams are made. Not even show hosts from HGTV could add to the curb appeal of this place to make it better. That is, unless there really was better out there… somewhere. I mean maybe all was not exactly as it seemed. Why depend on this place and its beauty and bounty when there might be more?

That’s when Independence came along and ruined everything. Independence came in the form of a lie. It was a lie told so well, so skillfully, that even the best of minds, uncorrupted by sin and circumstance, would believe. Did believe. And that lie ushered in a cosmic shift that would change everything. It ushered in Independence.

When Adam and Eve chose to believe Satan’s lie about the garden, God, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he did it with the lure of Independence. There was no real need for God to tell them what was good or bad for them, they alone could have the ability to choose for themselves by taking one, solitary bite. Certainly Dependence was inferior to Independence, right? What could be better than self-sufficiency and self-reliance?

Up to that point Adam and Eve had depended upon God to tell them what they needed, how the world worked, and how to live. He had afforded them great freedoms there in the garden and bestowed upon them hefty responsibilities, but it was all under His care. Suddenly, after one bite, that all seemed wrong somehow. Now there were options.

Now there was the option to be afraid and feel shame. Never before had Adam or Eve feared God their Father, nor had they ever encountered shame. But completely understanding the weight of what they had done, they were wholly terrified and fully shamed. The garden was made for them, but only if they daily chose to depend on the Father for everything. Now, with the ability to choose for themselves right and wrong, good and bad, they were free to make judgments. But freedoms come with a price. Independence costs us. For Adam and Eve and for the rest of us, it costs us relationship with the Father.

Now we judge others. Now we judge ourselves. Now we judge God. We assume, we manipulate, we control, and we plot and weigh options. We are completely free to do that inside our Independence, but we are not the judge that our Father is, and so often we are wrong, more often wrong than right. But we do not learn, rather we move on the next decision or circumstance, and place a label of “good” or “bad”, as if we know.

We live in a world that tells us to seek Independence as if it is some pinnacle of existence. We are to be the masters of our own destinies. We can be self made men and women. Yes, we can be. We can fight, struggle, scratch and claw for everything we can, or we can choose to become dependent again. We can choose to enter once again into a circle of relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, where we find it is far better to live in Dependence. Who are we kidding, anyway? The very breath in our lungs is His, and Independence is a lie. To choose to live in dependence means we submit to God and to those He sees fit to put in authority over us. Together, they form an umbrella of protection for us.

How do we leave Independence behind? We can choose to step back into the garden. We can give up the lie of control. We can give up the lie of self-reliance, and let God be God in our lives. It was a cosmic shift when Adam and Eve stepped out from dependence upon God, but the God of the cosmos gave us Jesus in return. Yet for that to have any bearing on our lives, we have to give up our independence and learn once again to depend. We have to learn to sacrifice what we can do under our own power, and fully rely on His direction for our lives.

For many of us, giving up our independence seems so scary, but I would imagine if we were able to talk to Adam and Eve about that, they would tell us that Independence is a four letter word.

I am reposting this blog piece from several years ago. I am doing it in memory of the woman I wrote it about. Donna Gayle Fulton went to be with the Lord this week. In my estimation, it was way too soon, but I’m not in charge so I’m trusting her lot to the Father. She will be greatly missed, but I find peace in knowing I will see her again. I hope you enjoy this story and the lesson I learned from it. 

How often have you been driving down the road and see one lone shoe on the side of the road? Or lying in the middle of the road? Usually it’s a flip flop, sometimes it’s a tennis shoe. Do you ever wonder what happened to the other shoe? I do, but that’s just how my mind works, I guess. What good is one shoe? I mean, assuming you have two feet, one shoe doesn’t do you much good.

I work for quite an unusual lady. I mean that in the best sense of the word, and I am not saying that because she’s probably going to be reading this and I really need to keep my job. I have been blessed to work for some truly wonderful people in my life and this lady is no exception. You’ll see what I mean here in a minute.

She recently shared this story with me.

A few years ago she had the privilege of caring for her aging parents. Unfortunately, her mother had fallen and broken, not one, but both of her wrists. Ouch. She was taking her mother to the doctor one day and had decided to pull up to the curb in front of the clinic and double park long enough to help her mom out of the car and inside. She was wearing her nurse’s uniform at the time and clog type slip on shoes. (Brand: Clarks. This information is important in a minute.) As she worked to get her mother out of the car and safely up on the sidewalk, she lost one of her shoes… down into the city sewer drain. If you spend the money to buy Clarks, it’s no fun to watch one go down the drain.

So there she stood with one shoe off and one shoe on, in downtown Birmingham, still needing to get her mom to the doctor, and finish her workday at the hospital. With only one shoe.

She finished getting her mom out of the car, onto the sidewalk, and suddenly remembered she had a change of clothes in her trunk from the previous Sunday. And she had a pair of shoes. Never mind that they were Sunday dress shoes, at least they were a pair. So she put on her dress shoes with her nurse’s uniform.

It was then she had the thought,

“What good is one shoe?”

So she took the Clark’s shoe she still had, walked back over to the sewer and flung it down with the first one. She told me she figured if someone found the first one, they might find the second one too and have a nice pair of shoes!

I’m not sure I know anyone else in the world that would have thought of that in that moment, but I am so glad to know her.

The Bible teaches us that faith without works is dead. This doesn’t mean that we are saved by our good works. No, that saving business is all Jesus. But good works are just a natural byproduct of a living, healthy and active faith relationship with Him. They don’t make Him love us more, they just make the relationship sweeter.

Just as one shoe is no good to anyone without the other shoe, so is faith without good works no good. The reverse is similarly true. Good works are fine apart from faith, but good works apart from faith serve only the worker in the end. Of course, those who received the benefit of the work are served, but in the end the worker gets the satisfaction of having done something, and so that part of him that desires affirmation gets a good stroke.

When good works are paired with faith, or come as a result of faith, it is God who is ultimately served. “Whenever you have served the least of these, you served me.” Matthew 25:40

For those of us in Alabama, as we live in the aftermath of last week’s tornados, we have a real opportunity to pair faith with good works to help our neighbors. No one should be excused from helping. We can all pray for those hurting. We can give what money we can to help the needy. We can add a few extra things to our grocery cart for those in need and drop them buy a donation center. We can go to work sites in communities hardest hit and help sift through the rubble and clear it away.

Hold a hand, dry a tear, give a hug. Share Jesus. We can do that.

Number one. Fasting isn’t weird. Although for most of my life growing up, I thought it was… if I ever thought of it at all… which I didn’t very much. The mainline traditional church setting I grew up in chose to ignore the practice for the most part. I did a search to see how many references there are in scriptures to fasting. I found in the neighborhood of 34, give or take. That’s kind of a lot of scriptures to overlook.

I do seem to remember the season of Lent that came around each spring leading up to Easter. There was some talk from time to time about “giving something up for Lent”, but not so much talk about why or the benefits of giving stuff up. I don’t recall it ever being suggested that we should fast outside of the season of Lent. It was just never discussed at all. For the most part, I looked on people who fasted as weirdos or fanatics. I now know that I was so wrong. Fasting doesn’t make you a weirdo. I mean you might be a weirdo who fasts, but you aren’t a weirdo simply because you choose to do it.

Number two. Fasting isn’t for public display. I know lots of people who, when they fast, want everyone to know about it. Invite them to the office lunch party and see the deal they make about it in front of everyone. Hello, Mr. Super Spiritual dude. It becomes sort of a spiritual snobbery. Here’s the thing, most of the time when we seek the Lord in earnest, as we do during a fast, its kind of a private affair. Just between Him and us. Matthew, Chapter 6, actually tells us to enter into a time of fasting privately, for God, not for man. And besides, if you don’t handle it kind of on the down low, then you are unwittingly supporting “What fasting isn’t, Number One”.

“When you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive so that people will see them fasting. I tell you the truth, they have their reward. When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others when you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:16-18

Number Three. Fasting isn’t a have to. It’s a get to. I had a friend ask me recently if my church makes me fast. Well, a church that makes you do anything isn’t a church. That’s a cult, and you should run away really quickly. You can trust me on that one. Been there, done that. No. While the Bible does say, “When you fast” and not, “If you fast”, that’s the cool thing about Jesus. He wants us to follow Him because we want to, not because we have to. Real love is choosing, and when we choose to fast we open ourselves up to experiencing God during prayer times like we do not at other times. I am thankful for a church that taught me the blessing of a period of prayer and fasting.

Number Four. Fasting isn’t for weight loss. Some people don’t even choose to fast from food. I have friends who decide to fast social media or secular music and television. Some decide to fast from sweets or caffeine. What I have found is that it’s best to fast from something that you feel its absence in your life. I mean, I could fast Brussels sprouts, but then I never eat them (yuck), so I wouldn’t really feel the impact of fasting those. When we choose to fast from food, a pleasant byproduct might be some weight loss, but, we all know, if we add those foods back in after the fast, that weight will tend to show back up.

Number Five. Fasting isn’t a time for wimpy prayers. The Bible tells us that we have not, because we ask not. When we enter into a time of sincere, earnest prayer and fasting, we need to bring our A game. Do we need to see real life change in someone we love? Do we need a door of opportunity to open? An illness healed? An obstacle moved? A plan for moving forward? Do we need the strength to take that next step in our relationship with Him? To trust Him for real? To finally give Him that thing we keep holding onto? To finally give up the struggle of doing things under our own might? This is a time to leave nothing on the table, unasked.

Sunday, I will join thousands of other believers in a twenty-one day period of prayer and fasting. I am so ready and so looking forward to it. It’s hard, for sure. Really hard. I’m not so much the type to deny myself much, but when I do, I make room for God to speak and move in my life unlike other times. My head clears, my heart listens, and God speaks more loudly and more clearly, or at least I am positioned to hear from Him better. It’s truly a great way to start a new year. I can’t think of a better way to show the Lord that my 2017 belongs to Him to do what He will in my life and in the lives of those who matter the most to me, than by a time of prayer and fasting.

“Yet even now,” the Lord says, “return to me with all your heart – with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Tear your hearts, not just your garments!” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger and boundless in loyal love – often relenting from calamitous punishment. Who knows? Perhaps he will be compassionate and grant a reprieve, and leave blessing in his wake – a meal offering and a drink offering for you to offer to the Lord your God! Blow the trumpet in Zion. Announce a holy fast; proclaim a sacred assembly! Joel 2:12-15