He Is My Refuge Series

Some of us … [clear throat] … are old enough to remember this song. It goes like this [start song]:

“The next time you’re found with your chin on the ground…

“There’s a lot to be learned … so look around.

“Just what makes that little old ant think He’ll move that rubber tree plant?

Anyone knows an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant.”

Common … sing it with me if you know it!

“But he’s got high hopes … he’s got high hopes …

“He’s got high apple pie in the sky hopes.”

“So anytime you’re getting low … instead of lettin go … just remember that ant!

“Oops there goes another rubber tree plant …

“Oops there goes another rubber tree plant” … [stop the music].

Ah … that’s probably enough of that, amen?

The world doesn’t seem to be offering us much in the way of hope these days, does it? Boom! Out of nowhere we find our world turned upside down and inside out by this pandemic and when you turn on the news you don’t hear a call to rally and pull together. We hear fighting, finger pointing … our leaders playing the blame game and partisan politics. Of course, this is nothing new. There was plenty of fighting and finger point before this pandemic hit … left versus right … Republicans versus Democrats … conservatives versus liberals … black versus white … gays versus straights … and, of course, the government versus the media.

All of this fighting and name-calling and shouting and finger-pointing all of the time … well, it can make us feel uneasy … anxious … uncertain … insecure … maybe even fearful, am I right? It creates a chronic sense of hopelessness and helplessness … you know what I mean? Have you felt it? I mean … even before the pandemic, there was a sagging sense of growing despair in the heart of Americans. I think that the poet and author Dorothy Sayers beautifully captured this growing sense of despair that has been creeping into our collective psyche when she wrote: "In the world it is called ‘Tolerance’ but in Hell it’s called ‘Despair’ … the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing … and remains alive because there is nothing worth dying for.” Wow … amen?

While I don’t believe that it’s gotten that bad, I do believe that if we’re not careful, if things don’t change, we could end up in the kind of “despair” that Ms. Sayer described … believing in nothing, caring for nothing, seeking nothing, enjoying nothing, hating nothing, living for nothing, and living only because there’s nothing worth dying for. Right now, I believe that we are at a point of just being chronically dissatisfied. Perhaps the true source of despair and hopelessness among so many people today is simply the recognition or growing awareness that life is just not what it ought to be or what we hoped it would be … that some of the things which promised satisfaction and joy have not delivered on their promises. And the result is a pervasive sense of malaise … of uneasiness … like an itch that just can’t be scratched, if you know what I mean … an irritating sense of frustration that comes from reaching for that undefinable something that is somehow always just beyond our reach … you know what I’m talking about?

So we chase … but we never quite arrive. We go after this … and when that fails to satisfy that itch, we go after something else ... and then something else … and then something else … and the more we chase and the more we fail, the more we become jaded and frustrated. It leaves us feeling hopeless and helpless. More and more people are feeling like there’s nothing that they can do that will make a difference in their lives, in the world, and it leaves them feeling more and more frustrated and more and more hopeless and helpless. Maybe you’re one of those people … maybe not … but I’m willing to bet that we all know someone who feels like that … probably more than one, am I right?

Well … guess what?!

I have good news … great news in fact! The problem today isn’t a lack of hope … trust me. Humans, as a rule, are very hopeful creatures. Hope is at the very core of our essence, our existence. It’s a vital, critical part of who we are as human beings. Science and medicine and human experience have proven time and time and time again that we simply cannot exist without hope. Hope is the very stuff of life. Believe it or not, my sisters and brothers, the problem isn’t hope. Nope! To hope is human. The problem is not the absence or lack of hope but what we put our hope in.