Is That All There Is?

                                             "Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope."
                                                                       -Lamentations 3:21  

     Well, it's over.  December 26.  The presents are opened, the ham is eaten, the family is gone.  Back to "normal".  Whatever normal is.  Last night, while we were sitting in our recliners recuperating from the constant motion we have been in, my husband mentioned the Christmas letdown.  You know the feeling.....after all the hubbub, constant things to do and preparations to make, when Christmas is over there is a strange and rather stupid feeling.  Almost like ....really?  That's it????  It almost makes me ashamed to say it, but it's kind of a "That's all there is?", kind of feeling.  With all we have, and with all the wonderful things that happened at Christmas, how awful we would feel that way.
      I don't think that feeling is unusual, however, and I don't think it is something that happens only at Christmas.  I am reading "Forever", by Paul David Tripp.  It was given to me to read by a friend.  I wasn't really sure if it was a borrow copy or a return copy, so I didn't underline passages like I normally do.  In this book, I would have to underline almost every word, so it's probably better that I didn't.  There is so much truth in this book I can't get over it.  One passage I read this morning jumped out at me from the page, and my heart whispered ...."Go, get on the computer and type."  So here I am.
     Tripp talks throughout his book about hope.  The human heart must have hope.  We crave it, we search for it.  Following is an excerpt from his chapter titled, "Hope Can't Live Without Forever" :
        
      "Separated from God, who was to be the source of their hope, Adam and Eve and the generations they birthed began to search for hope horizontally.  So we look for hope in the temporary situations, locations, relationships, and possessions of the broken world.  We hook ourselves to things that give temporary hope, or no hope at all, going back again and again until we become enslaved and addicted.  In searching for hope horizontally, we are shopping for God replacements.  But just like wooden idols that cannot see, hear, or speak, these God replacements have no capacity whatsoever to deliver.  They quickly leave us empty, always craving for more.....Sure the things in which we put our hope give us a temporary buzz and a temporary rest, but reality always hits.  These things all disappoint us in the end.  No matter how wonderful the situations in our life are, no matter how beautiful our possessions are no matter how exciting our experiences are, no matter how fulfilling our accomplishments are, and no matter how loving the people in our lives are, they will only satisfy us temporarily.  They simply cannot carry our hope."

       Is that the feeling we feel after Christmas?  That push, that drive to create the perfect Christmas with the perfect presents, perfect meals and treats, perfect family experience is something we all experience.  But it's never really perfect is it?  My oldest grandchildren love cafĂ© mocha, and what do you know....my coffee machine quit right before our annual Christmas breakfast.  It was our youngest granddaughter's first Christmas, and guess who forgot to take the annual 'grandchildren under the tree' picture?  A couple of gifts fell flat, and a little bit of relational stress poked its head in too. It just never lives up to the expectations we have.  It can't.
     All of life is like that.  We run around, like Tripp says, hoping to find that perfect, satisfying situation.  The thing that fulfills us, gives us hope.  The last sentence of the previous paragraph in the book says this:
    
 "How different would your life and mine be if we remembered that everything that exists in the created world is meant to be a finger pointing us to the only place where hope can be found?"

 Hmmmm.... I wonder.

     I have a confession to make.  For the past however many months....too many....I have found myself very busy.  Too busy.  My time in the Word has suffered.  I don't care what anyone says, unless that time is spent the Relationship suffers.  Like any relationship, if I don't take the time to nurture it, it just withers.  I see it in my attitude, my other relationships, my ministries.  It seems this is a lesson I learn and re-learn throughout my life.  I know better.  And yet I let it happen time and time again.  So, for 2015 I am going to really concentrate on being more consistent (not a trait I have ever come by easily).  I have to....
     What priorities to you need to reconsider?  Where are you primarily searching for your hope?  Even when those priorities are good things....family, friends, church......they won't satisfy.  They won't get rid of the "Is that all there is?" in our lives.  Only One thing will.   I plan to recommit to dig deeper, to nurture and concentrate on the One thing that will never give me that empty feeling.  Care to join me?

 
    

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