OK, this isn't from Disciple IV. It being Sunday, a Sunday I preached, it's been one of "those" days, leaving little time to do my Disciple study.

But rather than write nothing today, I thought I would post a devotion from Lamentations 3 that I prepared for our equipping staff retreat this week (I won't be posting Mon or Tues!). Here goes...

The theme of our retreat this year has been Lamentations 3:21-22, which you heard read earlier. I find Lamentations to be one of the most amazing books in the Bible.

First, if you need some decorations for a pity party, look no further. This is the most depressing book. Just listen to some of its verses:

How lonely sits the city that once was full of people! How like a widow she has become, she that was great among the nations! She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal. (Lament. 1:1, NRSV)

God has right on his side. I'm the one who did wrong. [Can you hear the SHAME?] Listen everybody! Look at what I'm going through! (Lament. 1:18, The Message)

I called to my friends; they betrayed me. My priests and my leaders only looked after themselves, trying but failing to save their own skins. (Lament. 1:19-21, The Message)

Oh God, look at the trouble I'm in! My stomach in knots, my heart wrecked by a life of rebellion. Massacres in the streets, starvation in the houses. (Lament. 1:19-21, The Message)

No one listens, no one cares. When my enemies heard of the trouble you gave me, they cheered. Bring on judgment day! Let them get what I got! (Lament. 1:19-21, The Message)

I mean, this stuff is utterly DEPRESSING!

But isn’t it safe to say it describes just the way we feel when...
- not one, not two, but three of our staff members get cancer within a year and two of them die of the disease?
- when a church member gets cancer and we pray for them, and we anoint them, and we celebrate with them when the doctor announces them post-surgically "cancer-free!" and then, a year later, they die from the recurrence of the disease?
- we bust our butts mobilizing to help Hurricane Katrina victims at the Reliant Complex; collect and distributing toys, diapers, food, bottles, clothes, we collect almost $500,000 in cash; we train and organize 700 volunteers to serve food; and then, 2 weeks later, TWO WEEKS LATER!we’re all running from another category 5 storm aimed right at us?
- an addict has been loved and nurtured at Mercy Street, he’s gotten sober and into a life group, he’s even living with a church member. Then, after we’ve poured so much love and trust into him, he steals from the people he’s living with gets high again?
- one partner of a married couple we’ve loved and shared life with suddenly and unexpectedly announces he or she is getting a divorce because there’s been an affair?

I could go on and on. All of these examples are real incidents that happened to us as a church staff recently. Like the writer of Lamentations, we can pour on the "poor, poor, pitiful me" stuff. Life gives us plenty to complain about, plenty to be downright depressed about. And I haven’t even mentioned the constant threats to our well being in the culture around us, stuff like...
- terrorism
- bird flu
- economic inflation and recession
- high oil prices
- apparent government incompetence or uncaring in the wake of disasters
- global warming and the thinning ozone layer
- living on the HIGH side of the hurricane cycle

If I go on – and I could – we would ALL need Liza to give us counseling! All of these are real threats currently around us. I’m not making any of this up.

But then, then, in the very midst of this "pity party" stuff, in the very middle of this depressing list of real life happenings, comes these absolutely AMAZING verses. This INCREDIBLE declaration of faith comes literally sweeping in out of nowhere. Smack dab from the center of all the complaining, and weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, comes this incredible statement:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will HOPE in him." (Lament. 3:22-24, NRSV)

"I will HOPE in Him." You know, they say that hope is stronger than memory. Where does this hope come from? Where in the depths of this pity-party-writing Lamenter does this hope bubble up from? And what I REALLY want to know is – where can I get some?

I don’t want to give you the "Jesus" answer here – you know, the "preacher I know the answer is SUPPOSED to be Jesus, but it sure sounds like a squirrel!" answer. I don’t want to over-simplify here. But we know that this Lamenter, when times got really, really tough, reached down deep, deep into the fortress of his or her faith. It comes from the bedrock belief that no matter how bad things get – and they DO get bad – that God is love. And though we may wail and moan and complain, we will not let go. Because we know that God will not let go. So we will hope in God.

I liked this theme for our retreat when it was first proposed because I find that this weaving in and out of the threads of despair and hope creates a tapestry that looks a lot like work on a church staff. There are incredible highs. And there are unbelievable lows. Often coming one right after the other. There are times when we want to get up on the roof of the church and shout for joy! And there are times when we want to bury our head and hide for days. There are times when we say, "This is the greatest job in the whole wide world! I should be paying the church for allowing me to do this!" And there are times we feel, "They can’t pay me ENOUGH to keep on doing this." This is church work.

Deep down in the bedrock of our souls, down in those unplumbed places where the Lamenter retreated in a time of dark despair, there, there we find faith. Faith like the Apostle Paul had in mind when he said in 1 Corinthians 15:58...

With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort. (1 Cor. 15:58, The Message)

Yes, hope is indeed stronger than memory.