Chopped off at the knees!

When I was a youngster I liked to sneak up behind someone and given them a “chop” in the bend of their knee, and laugh as their leg gave away and they lost their balance. Some people became good at bracing their legs, prepared for my “attack” while others never learnt to predict my childish antics.

As I grew older, and a little wiser, I learnt that life can also run up behind us and deliver a “chop” to the knees, leaving us weak-kneed and struggling to regain our balance. 16 years ago I completely “felled” by a knee-chop. Without warning I suffered a heart attack, and two days later I was facing heart by-pass surgery. Life has had its very difficult moments since then, and my health has never fully recovered. 

All of us face situations that completely “fell” us or stop us in our tracks, leaving us wondering “why me Lord?” as if somehow our Christianity should immunize us from such experiences. I have observed that sometimes our faith actually conspires with life to deliver these knee-chops. I have slowly begun to understand that if I know God, then no matter what my circumstances, there is hope. 

There is a very old tree on a farm that I used to visit when I was a child that I saw struck by lightening, and burst into flame, during a storm more than 60 years ago. A few years ago I revisited the farm, and much to my surprise the old scarred and burnt stump had burst into life, and produced a new trunk about 5 meters tall. As I stood marveling at the impossibility of such a thing I finally began to understand the words of Job 14:7-9

For there is hope of a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and its tender branch will not cease. Though its root becomes old in the earth, and its stump dies in the dust, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. Job 14:7-9  

If just the scent of water can restore life to a lifeless tree, how much more can God do with a living, breathing human being? If I have a heart attack, there is hope, if I have a wayward child; there is hope, if my family is being torn apart by some dreadful turmoil there is hope. If the church that I attend is breaking into rival factions, there is hope, if my own “ministry” is decimated and slandered by friend and foe alike there is hope. 

No matter what blow fells us, if we know God there is always hope! 

God is not likely to forget those whom He gave His life for… if a tree shattered and destroyed by a lightening strike 60 years ago can grow and bud again, then there is nothing that cannot be restored to life.

The Greek word for “hope” is elpo meaning “to look forward to with pleasurable confidence and expectation.” Paul, the Apostle, wrote to the Romans, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” Romans 15:13

Paul introduces the incredible idea “that you may abound in hope”… what he actually means is “that we may have hope enough to spare; a supply that is overflowing, excessive, beyond measure!”
This is but one way to cheer up the human heart and be filed with gladness. “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.... My tears have been my meat day and night... I pour out my soul in me.... Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.” Psalm 42:2-5 KJV.

 This is God’s message to all who are “cast down”, to those who are sad, defeated, discouraged and joyless. Why am I depressed? Why am I gloomy and sad? Why am I overwhelmed? Why do I mourn? David does not even try to answer these questions in this Psalm. All he can say is, “Hope in God! He is the health of my countenance.”