In ancient times, most of the known world rejected God. It hadn’t always been that way, but that’s a story for another day. God had created humanity for communion with him, and so invited a people to come out of their chosen idolatries and enter into a relationship with him. He promised to care for, defend, ardently love, and prosper them if they would devote themselves to him as he devoted himself to them. As he had vowed to care for and love them, they vowed to give him their total devotion as well. Yet, over the centuries, although God kept his end of the vow, they did not.
In the Bible, God likened this vow with his people to an intimately loving marriage, and made this agreement with them as a solemn vow, or covenant. Even though God did protect them, provide lavishly for them, and love them with a forever love, they often wanted to be like all the other nations and do as they wished but still reap the benefits of God’s heart toward them and the vow they shared.
God warned them over and over not to reject his love but to return to him. Yet over and over they chose other lovers and then pretended that these lovers had been the providers all God had lavishly given them. Their commitment broken over and over, God eventually gave them over to their lovers, in this case the country of Babylon who battered and cruelly broke them.
God’s heart was that they return to him and to the covenant they once shared, and so, in the middle of their slavery to their lover Babylon, he offered them hope. A certain hope based on his love for them, and his power to affect change once they chose to return to him.
As his own people languished in slavery to Babylon seventy years, they remembered what God had done for them, and how he had loved and cared for them. Their hearts warmed, as they envisioned his past mercies. Such memories comforted them as they faced reality. During this time, someone penned the following verses, recorded in the Bible, as God offered them his love and hope in the middle of all they faced.
Maybe you relate. I know I do.
How you and I fit into God’s hope story
This same God offers each of us the same hope by offering us the same opportunity to return to him. He offers us a plan of restoration, just as he offered his people so long ago. A man named Paul clearly laid out the reality of our choices:
The prophet Joel also gives us our remedy:
Maybe you once cried out to God in your pain, yet your requests seemed to vanish into thin air. The God of the universe heard, but is not a Santa Claus who forever gives without expectation. He wants you in all your brokenness. He wants to bring you to himself and offer you all he offered his people so long ago, with the same vow. You don’t need to clean yourself up first. You can’t. But he can clean you up and give you a life you could never have imagined on your own. I know.
I have discovered that what he offers is far and above all I could ever give him. His hope realized is a life of purpose and identity with a love no man can offer.
GOD OFFERS YOU THE SAME HOPE
Let me end this post with a song that beautifully expresses the hope I have found, and the hope God offers you through Jesus. The first lines of the lyrics exclaim:
How great the chasm that lay between us
How high the mountain I could not climb
In desperation, I turned to heaven
And spoke Your name into the night
Then through the darkness, Your loving-kindness
Tore through the shadows of my soul
The work is finished, the end is written
Jesus Christ, my living hope
God’s offer stands. The choice is yours. He’s just waiting for you to decide – go your own way and hope it works well eventually, or go with Jesus and receive a living hope you could never have imagined, despite what goes on around you.
May I pray for you?
Lord, you see and hear the cries of this dear one. You see their desperation. Reveal Jesus to them. Show yourself loving and compassionate beyond their imaginations. Give them they hope they long for, through Jesus Christ, for you are more loving and compassionate than they could ever imagine. In Jesus’ name, amen.
To grow in a new relationship with Jesus, and/or to find help in your pain, click this link for resources
Dear one, it may seem like you are solitary in your grief and pain, but I can assure you that you are seen, and there is someone who has already felt your sorrow and carried the weight you bear.
Yet it was our grief he bore, our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, for his own sins! But he was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; he was lashed—and we were healed!We—every one of us—have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us! Isaiah 53:4-6 (TLB)
That loss that led you to unimaginable grief – God sees and whispers, “I welcome you to come close. Let me comfort you. My son, Jesus, came and gave his life so you no longer have to grieve alone without hope.”
Those words that cut you to the core and left shame in their wake – Jesus heard them and defies them with, “I made you; you are mine. Come to me in your weariness and brokenness and I will give you rest. Let me reveal to you the love through which I view you, and you will discover the masterpiece I formed in your mother’s womb. You are not forgotten or garbage to me. Let me show you who you are through my eyes, for you are my beloved.”
The cutting that no longer dulls the pain as it once did but only deepens the scars that mark both your body and soul – Jesus cries out to you, “I let them whip and cut me so you no longer need to cut yourself. Let me bear your unbearable pain. Let me enter your darkest places with you and reveal my heart for you within that place, and show you my power to restore light and hope, for you are mine.”
The shame and guilt that becomes weightier the longer you hide what you’ve done, or what another has done against you. Jesus lived, died, and arose to restore the life and hope shame and guilt have stolen from you. You have born the pain far too long. Jesus paid the penalty for that which you have no ability to cleanse yourself from. He knows. He cares. He loves you more lavishly than you could ever imagine. He alone has the power to remove the stain of your sin and the sins others stained you with. He can cleanse you and make you whiter than snow.
Jesus meets me daily in my grief and pain
Over sixteen years ago I buried my husband of twenty-five years after two years battling lung cancer. He suffocated to death, basically. Pain still pulsates through me when I think about it. Six months before his death I began having panic attacks. What they were I didn’t know, but they were horrific. It took years to become free from them.
Since his death, my life is completely different, and nothing I ever would have imagined.
Before his illness and death, Norman and I were raising our special needs son with non-verbal autism and mood disorder. We adopted Rick* at five, and he really never accepted me as his third mom. He’d been around this adoption thing before and so figured at some point his life would eventually turn upside down again. Norman was the steady one, and accepting him seemed to come more naturally for Rick. Rick often enjoyed playing control games with me more than Norman, so Norman’s illness and death only led to escalations that I could no longer easily control. After Norman’s death, I couldn’t care for Rick alone as it wasn’t safe for either of us. In my wildest dreams I never imagined having to remove Rick from our home. Despite the challenges, he was our son and we loved him dearly. The process was horrific and the trauma to both of us was tremendous.
After sixteen years, Rick still lives in a group home. Our relationship is better than it has ever been as we’ve both healed and grown a lot through those years. However, the pain and grief still linger in spaces I can’t fix. We’ve grown but both walk with a limp.
I remarried twelve years ago to a wonderful man who also lost his wife after six years of severe, in-and-out of the hospital illnesses. Gary’s two boys were also adopted from traumatic circumstances. His youngest was only six when his adoptive mom became ill and almost died the first time. She died three days before his twelfth birthday. I became third mom once again. Rejection became “normal” because who in their right mind would readily accept a third mom they didn’t want in the first place. Gary’s boys are now grown and on their own and we have a much better relationship, but they too still show signs of the pain and loss. We all do. It has taken years for each of us to find a new normal, and some of us are able to do that more easily than others. Our sons find it the hardest as their lives have been in hard places too many times with too many broken relationships to fully trust again.
Gary and I have been in ministry for the last three of our twelve years together. He pastors a small multicultural congregation of Jesus followers in the southwest. It’s a life I never dreamed of, but it’s exactly where I want to be. It’s very difficult at times as the cultural differences are still something we always must work through. We still have so much to learn. But what we’ve been through has been used by God more times than I can imagine to pour out his love on people who have experienced, sometimes, more brokenness than we have. I guess what I’ve learned as I’ve walked through all this is that Jesus understands and calls me to his embrace over and over. It’s hard to explain what his embrace and presence feel like, but it’s like smelling peonies and hearing lullabies, and walking into the homiest house I can imagine full of all things warm and welcoming. During the hardest and not so hard, I have also been amazed at how he can pull off a miracle in my life, circumstance, or in another life when I just let go and let him do his thing in and through me.
What is your story?
On what type of journeys have grief and pain taken you? I have so much to learn, and am very willing to learn from my readers. If you would like to begin a dialogue, so we can learn from one another, please leave a comment and tell me a bit of your story. Also, please subscribe to get these posts when they come out. Since I last wrote, I continue to change how I view this blog, and want you, my reader, to play a part in what happens here.
Please, may I pray for you before we say “goodbye” for today? Lord, this precious one who has read this far, meet them in their need. May they be willing to take the chance that if they cry out to you for help, and are willing to yield to your gentle care, you will answer. You’ve answered me a million times in ways I could never deny either your existence or your compassion. Reveal yourself to them in this moment. Please. In Jesus’ name, amen.
This song shares Jesus’ heart for you better than I can
The writer and singer has his own story of grief and pain. Look it up. It may encourage you as well as it has me.
Should you wish to read a bit more about my grief journey
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