Hope Addict

Chronicles of a Blessed Man

Cracks and Crevices

April 2, 2020

I am not a fan of “formulas” when it comes to considering relationship dynamics.   But in interacting with fellow humans or God, by His Spirit, I have experienced a very consistent outcome I would like to share with you regarding hope.  My heart and mind have been calmed and excited by hope with virtually every breath I have breathed the last 32 of the 57+ years I have lived.  My hope is continually fueled by three expressions (or prayers if you prefer).  I discovered only recently, as I meditated on how good God has been to me, that I speak three prayers, sometimes audibly, with great regularity.  Just uttering these prayers will not generate even the slightest smidgen of hope but I have seen hope born and liberally poured out when it has been cultivated from a sincere heart.  Every day, throughout the day and with divine assistance, I pray three prayers.  These three, three-word prayers are the foundation of hope in my life.

The first prayer I pray is the same prayer that birthed hope out of great darkness 30 years ago: “HELP ME, LORD.”  Hope is assaulted all day, every day.  Local, State, National and International news and the various forms of social media emit a constant stream of images and messages conveying heavy doses of pain, heartache, struggle, conflict, hatred, sickness, disease, greed, hunger and this list could go on and on.  To be aware of the pain and sorrow prevalent in every corner of this world and still maintain great hope is not easy.  Some people have their head proverbially buried in the sand to cope.  Many people medicate to mitigate the despair they feel.  The struggle is real.

Whether the battle is physical, emotional or spiritual, I fight every day to overcome my weaknesses and to love random acquaintances, friends and even family members the way Jesus has called me to love them.  I ask for help often throughout the day.  All I can tell you is that I ask Jesus to help me and HE ALWAYS DOES!  HE helps me apologize and ask for and give forgiveness.  HE helps me keep anger, greed and lust in check.  HE helps me overcome fear with faith and courage.  HE helps me endure pain and grief for ever how long they are with me.  HE helps me see eternity and not worry about the sting of death.  All day, every day “Help me, Lord” is a real prayer I really pray.  But if there were no response then I pray in vain.  The response is HOPE.  Solid, deep, thriving HOPE is the response my LORD gives me in measures that are often overwhelming.

 Secondly, I pray:  “THANK YOU, LORD!”  You might think that “Thank you, Lord” would be uttered with about the same frequency as “Help me, Lord.”   It would seem to make sense. You ask for help and you say thank you when it is received.  BUT, I have discovered that Jesus is not waiting around to be asked for help or to assist me.  HE is still helping me today for things I requested help with years ago.  HIS presence and subsequent help continually surround me and support me.  “Thank you” as an expression out numbers “Help me” by at least a 50-1 margin.  There are a thousand things I do every day that doctors once told me I would not be able to do.  I can feel my body.  I can stand and though it is a great struggle and more than a little risky I can walk.  My kidneys, bladder and bowels all function to varying degrees.  I have a job, can drive a car and own a home.  The list is virtually endless.

In my humanity the abilities I am grateful for can become routine and overlooked.  Thankfully a significant number of these abilities I have will NEVER be routine to me and they deserve a sincere and real “THANK YOU, LORD!”   I will often be reminded of things I’ve thanked the Lord for dozens of times before but the reminder is real and the “thank you” needs to be expressed again and not with half my heart.  I sincerely attempt, with divine help, to recognize every moment a physical, emotional or spiritual struggle is overcome.  I am keenly aware that overcoming is not by sheer force of will or human assistance.  In all these moments, a real “THANK YOU, LORD” is birthed in my soul and audibly or inaudibly expressed with great joy.  So you can see how the “Thank you, Lord”s don’t take long to considerably outnumber the “Help me, Lord”s.  Hope is strengthened and grows with every “Thank you, Lord.”

Finally, I also pray: “HELP THEM, LORD.”  Some of the greatest expressions of disappointment in Jesus’ life recorded in scriptures are found when HE encounters people who are ungrateful or selfish.  How could someone who has been blessed, forgiven, healed, or delivered not want others to experience those things as well?   “Help them, Lord” is the natural expressed response of someone who is truly thankful.   Furthermore, awareness of those around us and their needs and heartfelt compassion and mercy for others who need help is the greatest factor that will determine whether hope grows and thrives or withers and dies.

When you see someone do something that annoys you, disgusts you or causes righteous indignation to rise up in you, what do you do, what do you think?  When you see someone who has a habit or addiction or behavior that is destroying their life, what do you do, what do you think?  When you encounter people who have a different lifestyle or worldview than you do, what do you do, what do you think?  When you see someone “get what they deserve”, what do you do, what do you think?   There is not enough space here to begin to discuss all that you or I should do or think but I can tell you for certain what you and I should do FIRST.   Praying a very sincere and real prayer of hope should always be our first response – “HELP THEM, LORD!”  No judgement, no condemnation, no arrogance, no condescension.   This attitude does not come as naturally as “Help ME, Lord” or “Thank you, Lord.”  Jesus helps me to see other people who appear to be or are obviously in danger or trouble or at risk as though it was me because once it was me.  HE leads me in this simple expression of hope for others many times a day.

When I see someone addicted to harmful relationships or substances, caught up in violence or poverty, surrounded by turmoil or confusion, lost and hurting or in pain or grieving all I can do before I do anything else is very resolutely pray – “HELP THEM, LORD.”  I am convinced there were many people who saw me at various times in my life and they turned to the Lord on my behalf and they prayed “Help Sid, Lord” or they didn’t even know me but they prayed “Help that boy, Lord.”   HE did!  HE did! HE did!  Jesus helped me!  So when I simply pray “Help them, Lord” and I mean it, HOPE finds its way into cracks and crevices around them even though they are not even consciously aware of where it came from.  When I allow Jesus to make me aware and I pray “Help them, Lord” hope soars like an eagle in my soul!

As I sit and type this blog, our world is in the middle of the global pandemic known as COVID-19.  This virus has caused great pain and suffering and no one is certain what will happen in the coming days.  Hope can be difficult to find in our “normal” day-to-day living and can seem very far away in the middle of this worldwide crisis.  It is my greatest desire that you find hope in these words today.  I also pray that many will be bold in these days and mingle their social distancing with hope giving prayers: “HELP ME, LORD!”, “THANK YOU, LORD!” and “HELP THEM, LORD!”

 

P.S., Before I started writing this post I prayed, “Help me, Lord.”  When I closed the last paragraph I prayed, “Thank you, Lord.”  When I posted this blog I prayed, “Help them, Lord.”  If you need help today, Jesus is only a prayer, whisper or shout away.  God Bless!

 

You, Me and Hope

May 31, 2018

Hope for some seems constant and steady but for others it appears to ebb and flow. Sometimes the ebbs and flows reach tsunami levels. Sometimes there is barely a noticeable ripple in the soul as life just kind of moves along. But thankfully (and there is someone to thank), most of us never lose hope, not all of it anyway. But then there are those who do lose hope – all of it.  A soul that has lost all hope is like a dead man walking and, unless someone intervenes, a dead man walking will, in time, seek and find a way to stop walking.  You see, hope does ebb and flow but the journey from complete hopelessness to death is usually not a long one. It wasn’t for me.
I arrived at complete hopelessness at the age of 25 in the Spring of 1988 while a college student at the University of Alabama (Roll Tide!).  What I considered to be justifiable self-hatred was so intense that it had decayed my soul and methodically drained all hope from my life. As this blog moves forward (if this blog moves forward), I am hopeful that you and I will share our stories and the reasons for my self-hatred will find a natural way to reveal themselves to the extent they will be relevant. But for now here I sit so full of hope that it is sometimes difficult to catch my breath. How did that happen?
Brace yourself if you don’t believe in God or if someone has presented a distorted and inaccurate portrait of Jesus to you. I am a follower of Christ. Long story but I sat in my wheelchair in my dorm room in Tutwiler Hall on the campus of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in late March, 1988 and sincerely asked Jesus (if He was real) to forgive me and help me because I was a dead man walking (rolling in my case) who was about to find a way to stop walking (rolling).  I said my prayer, transferred out of my wheelchair into my bed and went to sleep.
But then the next morning came. I still can’t fully explain what took place in my soul but I have never had another suicidal thought. From that morning until this one I can honestly say my only goals have been to understand who Jesus Christ really is, to live the way He would have me to, and to be faithful and diligent about sharing the inexhaustible hope I have found.
It is genuinely my hope that whoever reads these words will be encouraged. Though I am a follower of Christ, this is not a “religious” blog. All I want is to speak and to listen, to have a real dialog with real people who may be experiencing a tidal wave of hope in their life or may be near complete hopelessness or somewhere in between. I will endeavor to speak the truth with love and respect each person. I want to learn and to teach.  Please comment or contact me if I can help you in any way.