"I sit in a hole"

I came across this poem quoted in Peter Brain's book "Going the Distance" as I was reading it over the Christmas holiday in 2004. For me at the time, it gave clear expression to what I was feeling.

I sit in a hole, I cannot get out.
Too tired to climb, too frightened to shout,
The darkness engulfs me, I no longer see
The light or the hope or the way to be free.
The pain and the heartache destroying my soul
Is too much to bear within this black hole.
Where is the love that would lift me so high
To heal me within so my spirit could fly?
All I need is a friend to show that they care.
Some comfort to give, a joy to share.
Dear God, if such a friend be
Please tell them to reach in this hole for me
Dr Lachlan Dunjey in part of an article offering practical ways to minister to one another in WA Baptist Contact (March 1990)

Peter Brain comments, "How can someone who was normally bright, active, happy and confident write a poem such as this? The answer is depression - a condition that will affect millions of people around the world this year."
That was how I felt at the time. Praise God, I don't feel like that right now. I am surrounded by a wonderful church family and friends who have shown me and go on showing me genuine affection and great practical love.
I may feel like that again someday. I hope and pray that I won't. But I don't believe that God promises to save me from such times. But praise him, he does promise to bring me through such times. He will never leave me or forsake me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. (John 10.28)

In the meantime, I must (and long to) get on with loving others - especially those who are experiencing similar sufferings.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2Corinthians 1.3-4)

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men (NIV)

I've been recently confronted again with the idea of what we might call "Christian triumphalism" - that is, the idea that in some way, Christians should triumph in this world. I would agree with this statement - Christians should triumph in this world - in some sense. But the question is this, "in what sense should we expect to be triumphant?" Or more importantly, "in what ways does God promise that we will be triumphant?"
If you listen, you'll hear lots of different answers to these questions. From more charismatic quarters of the church, there are answers like:

• we should expect to triumph over sickness. Ongoing sickness has no place in the life of a Christian who prays in faith. Passages quoted to support this view might include Isaiah 53.4 and James 5.15
  
• we should expect to triumph over sin rather than struggle with it
  
• we should expect to be strong rather than weak ("the weaknesses I see in me will be stripped away by the power of Your love")
  
• if God has put all things under Christ's feet and he has seated us with Christ, then surely all things are under our feet too.

I'd like to come back to this and carefully examine what the Bible has to say on each of these sometime soon. But for now, may it suffice to say that any view of Christian triumphalism that makes it better to be a Christian even if there is no resurrection is not in keeping with the teaching of the Bible:

If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. (1Cor 15.19 NIV)

Christianity without hope for the future makes this life harder, not easier, according to Paul. Not only that but one of the most wonderful promises at the climax of the Bible makes no sense if this life is not a life of tears and pain:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. (Rev 21.4)

May God strengthen us to conquer by holding fast to our hope in Christ until he appears.