And August Ends

I woke late this last day of August
The busyness of the closing month of Summer
Tired, Frazzled, Hopefully looking to Fall
And that’s a few weeks away
September can still taste of Summer
But the joy that the season is gone, oh boy!
And August ends.

For many years of my life, August would signal the end of summer and the beginning of school. August says goodbye to Summer, Hello to Fall, and Wow! Winter is soon here!

To say this year has been stressful would be an understatement. History will paint these past two years with broad strokes of fear and anger, and less to hope and recovery. Overreaction will stand up to “I don’t believe it!” Pandemic. Growing statistics of sickness and death. Fear of returning restrictions. Forcing compliance. Will school start with in-person attendance? Bull Markets. Bear Markets. Oh, my! Devastating fires. Then, throw a hurricane into the mix! Exiting a nation continually at war. Death. Mayhem. Destruction.

Pile it on!

To believe it will return to normal is probably thinking with your head in the sand. Ignore it? It goes away, right? Stand up to it. Conqueror it like Everest. Really? What will be our new life? Zombie-Ville. Apocalyptic. A vast wasteland will take decades, if not centuries, to recover.

Recovery does not happen overnight as we move out of August and into September.

And August Ends…

A Scent Of Hope

We have stories in and out of the bible to describe similar events globally and locally, even to you or me. Think about Job. He had it all and lost it all…in a single day. Then his health failed, and he was nearly alone with his suffering.

“For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that its tender shoots will not cease.
Though its root may grow old in the earth,
And its stump may die in the ground,
Yet at the scent of water, it will bud And bring forth branches like a plant.
(Job 14:7-9 NKJV)

In my way of thinking, the scent of water reflects his writing as a scent of hope. A drowning man will clutch anything for the hope of safety—even a straw. Look at Job. He was drowning in his situation. No one was there to help him through, except himself and God. Where did he draw his hope from?

Just the scent of hope.

Most of us cry out for someone else to solve our problems. Job had no one. But his faith and foundation saw him through. The restoration was on the other side, maybe even after many August months had come and gone. He may have felt hopeless, but something inside kept him focused forward.

We flail at life, thinking we have been overwhelmed many times. Hope states, “You made it through that, so you’ll make it through this.” If we documented our present battle better, we would see what we faced and how we made it through later in retrospect. That should give us hope!

Finding Hope in Restless Times

Where do we find hope? How do we keep it? During trying times, our hope in Christ is tested. We fight battles we think are unwinnable. We wrestle in the pits of despair. Paul despaired that Demas had left him, “…having loved this present world…” When you study it deeper, it doesn’t mean Demas forsook Christ, rather, Paul was on his way to life’s ending moment, and Demas wasn’t ready to accept a similar fate.

Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica;
Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Only Luke is with me.
Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.
(2 Timothy 4:9-11 KJV)

Some search for hope in life away from Christ. The bottle, drugs, food, entertainment, relationships…you name it, they find it. If you are looking for something like this, you will find it.

I find my hope in Christ, being secure with him in the boat even when it appears he’s sleeping. “Master! Don’t you care that we are perishing?” Peace… Be still. Everything stops. Instantly. That’s the power of my hope! Jesus can speak at the right time, and everything will turn on a dime!

Yet, notice what his next words are, and they should convict all of us.

But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
(Mark 4:40 NKJV)

Catch it? Faith stands up to fear! Maybe Demas’s problem was too much fear about the options available to Paul, so he loved his present world more and retreated. Fear at work? It’s possible.

Faith, Hope, and Love are part and parcel of our walk with God, and Love is the greatest! But Faith and Hope are part of that three-fold cord that cannot be easily broken! (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

Here’s My Thought Today

Back in the ’90s, I was teaching a bible study at work. For 3 1/2 years, we had a brown-bag bible study at lunch. One man continually brought all the negative news to me as we were preparing to start. Patiently I listened, disputing, agreeing, and challenging the premises of how bad it was. Finally, I would say something like, “It’s going to get worse before it gets better, right?” Hmmm. You gotta point, there. He would smile, and we could move forward.

Are we in those worse times today? Who knows! All I know is that I’m not letting the times dictate to me my faith in Christ, my hope in the scent of water, or the love that shows I belong to him. I can come out of the dugout that many are fearful of leaving, swing for the fence with my faith propelling me around the bases, no matter how bad it gets. Slide into home plate! Safe!

We can all use this analogy. Are you ready for a home run? You have to get into the game. I heard this on the radio yesterday, “…a dog in the hunt don’t know he has fleas!”