I serve on the Care Team at Church. We meet people with God’s love and give them hope. I feel called to this. But it’s not always easy.
From the conversations I have I see that Hope is a commodity often in short supply. Usually the visit for care is the result of multiple crises in a person’s life. Often it is the result of personal decisions combined with events outside their control. Almost always there is some degree of loss that precedes the loss of hope… decline in health, the passing of a loved one, a job loss, a broken relationship… The end result is that the initial loss precipitates a void wherein hope is drained from the individual.
Our goal in Care is very simple. We seek to allow the Lord to work through us to help the Care Receiver know that Jesus loves and cares for them. It is amazing how He does this. Empathy is our connection point. Often the Father matches life experiences that the Caregivers have walked through with the challenges the Care Receiver is facing. This empathy is more than just important, it is essential in being a conduit of God’s love and hope. We do not theorize, postulate, or pontificate, but rather we seek to be like Jesus and know the person as a valued child of God. With this relationship established we are able to take the next step.
With sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and an attitude of love, we seek to help the individual identify the root of the loss. In most cases there are decisions that have been made that need to be understood. While we seek to deal gently with the broken, we do not treat sin lightly. It is vitally important that sin be clearly identified and labeled as what it is. While not all poor decisions are necessarily sin, those that are must be confessed and repented of. The Word of God is the key here. With Love we share what the Bible says and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. (Sidenote – It appears to me that where we Christians gain a black eye in the public realm is when we take on the role of prosecuting attorney for God. Don’t get me wrong, we are to flee from sin, to resist the devil, and do all in our power to promote what is good, decent, and godly. But if we simply speak the truth from the Word of God, we can leave the emphasizing of what that means to the Holy Spirit.)
Where it is possible, attempts to undo the damage of the sin are appropriate. Restitution is a bold, and often beneficial step in the process of repentance. When I became a believer there was a person I had wronged in my college days. The Lord impressed upon me that I had a concrete step to take with that person so I drove 600 miles for a face-to-face confession of my sin and to ask for forgiveness. At the time I was just trying to be obedient to what I understood the Lord was showing me I needed to do. Today I recognize that it was a major step in my growth as a believer which freed me to be ready for what lay ahead.
Many times forgiveness is a key act in the repentance and healing process. One of the diabolical aspects of sin is that the victim is often the one who ends up bound in cords of unforgiveness. There is great liberty in forgiving someone who has done you wrong. I have had a few “done unto” events and I can honestly say that the Lord has blessed me, not in spite of those things, but through those events after I forgave and then gave the situation to Him. This is something I have personally experienced and it is essential in the healing process. (Truth in writing, the forgiving part requires persistence. The enemy will initially bring the event back up to try and revive the pain and emotional turmoil. This is a good time to rebuke the thought and repeat your decision to forgive and verbalize that it is in the Lord’s hands.)
This post is about hope, but it is necessary to understand that hope is a tender flower that requires the proper soil. What I have described above is required to prepare the soil of the heart to receive the seed of hope. Make no mistake, hope will not flourish in the wrong environment. There is a plethora of hope-killers waiting to stamp out the flower of hope, but Jesus’ words should encourage us – “Fear not, for I have overcome the world.” He is the MASTER Gardener and the Giver of Hope.
Which brings us to the next step – sharing the Word of Life. The bible is full of God’s promises. In caregiving this is an apt time to share words that speak into the Care Receiver’s life situation. Frequently after a conversation I stand amazed at how the Lord brought the right scripture to mind at the perfect time in a conversation. It is important to regularly read the Word so that it performs its transformative work in you (Romans 12:1-2) and becomes the source of your wisdom to share with others. The final piece of this is the active work of the Holy Spirit to bring to mind the right word for us to speak and then apply that word in the Care Receiver’s life.
This leads to the climatic step in Care Giving – Prayer. I’ve mentioned speaking and verbalizing a couple of times already. I’m prompted today to mention that it is often necessary to speak things into existence. The bible begins with God speaking all of creation into existence. Through the Old Testament we see God putting His words into the mouths of His prophets. When Jesus walked the earth He spoke and people were changed, healed, delivered, saved. He even spoke to the wind and waves and they obeyed Him. He is the Lord God Almighty. To Him every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess (Phil 2:9-11). Now for a time He has chosen in His great mercy to give mankind a little more time to turn to Him. In this window we do not yet see everything under the heavens fully submitted to Him. But make no mistake, it is all under His dominion.
As believers God has placed His Holy Spirit into us. We are His ambassadors. An ambassador is a representative of a sovereign nation living and residing in a foreign land. Even though they live in a different country, the full weight of their home country rests upon them. When they speak, they are speaking for their home country. As Christ’s ambassadors, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we are to speak God’s Word and His words into lives. Prayer is how we do this. God gives us the responsibility and privilege of praying what He wants to do in the lives of those He sends our way. The enormity and mystery of this overwhelms me, but I have experienced it too many times to ignore or discount.
The final step is living out the hope which God has called us to dispense. In some instances, it will mean we walk with the Care Receiver for a time, for a season, or as life-long friends. In other instances, it will mean praying for and encouraging them for just that intersection of time, trusting the Lord to continue the good work He has begun. In every situation though, God has called us to look to Him in child-like trust and nurture the hope that He promises us in His word and He places in our heart.
A final application. Please forgive me ahead of time for this final inclusion, but it is a burden I’ve been bearing for several weeks now. It is also the primary reason I haven’t blogged in a while. You see, I, like a lot of Americans, am disappointed in what I see in our political process. It wearies me to see the division and acrimony blasted forth for all to see and endure. I do not see hope there. I have chosen a candidate to vote for, but it is more because I see a terrible choice and a little less bad choice. My friend this has tended to get my eyes off the Lord and onto lesser things. This weekend I was able to minister care to others dealing with real world, right now issues and I was able to fellowship with others who love God and are striving to live lives of abundant hope. In so doing I saw my malady for what it was. I was being drawn to put at least a portion of my faith in things that are not worthy of my faith, nor able to give real hope.
And then I lifted my eyes… Jesus is the only one worthy of my total faith and the only one who gives real hope. And that hope does not disappoint! (Romans 5:1-5)
Two final thoughts. I finished this blog last night, but for some reason I didn’t post it. This morning I woke and called my wife to do our devotion. (I travel a lot in my work so we do our devotion together over the phone each morning.) The following scripture just jumped out at me. It is the exclamation point from the Word on what I have said.
Psalm 62:5-8
Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him. Truly He is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge.
Today is the one year anniversary of the passing of four of our youngest son’s friends in a tragic car accident. James, Josh, Mills, and Sarah are not here with us any longer. The pain and loss is still very real for their family and friends. But with eyes of faith we look forward to the day when we will see them again. They trusted the Lord and were His children. And one day we too will pass from this life to larger life. And the reunion will be real and it will be good. This is hope that we can hold onto.
Take care my friend. May the Lord richly bless you today as you live a life of tangible hope.
