Dr. Ralph Byron, a surgeon at City of Hope Hospital, once said that the greatest fear a cancer patient experiences is that at some point in time he will be abandoned.
There are many of us who have that fear. Our nursery workers probably have seen fear in the eyes of little children when their parents have been slow to pick them up following a worship service. "Have I been abandoned?" is the thought that is going thru that young mind.
The late Ozzie Nelson used to tell this story about his son, Ricky:
"Ricky was just a young boy when his friend, Walter, came over to spend the weekend with him. I got off work a little early so I could play with the boys. We went into the backyard & started throwing a football around, I was getting really good when Ricky said, `Hey, Dad, you're great!' And Walter piped in and exclaimed, `Gee, Mr. Nelson, you've got a pretty good arm, but not as good as my dad.' When it came to dinner time, I carved the roast with thin even slices. Walter enthused, `You carve the roast pretty good, Mr. Nelson, but you should see my dad do it!'
"Well, I couldn't wait for Walter's mother to pick him up so I could find out about this super-dad! When she came to the door I said, `Hi! I'd sure like to meet your husband. He must be something else!' `Oh, no' she said, `Has Walter been talking about his dad again? You see, Walter was only 3 years old when his dad was killed.'"
That was Walter's way of dealing with his loss. But children are not the only ones who can feel abandoned. In this day when so many marriages are being dissolved, there are grown men & women who cry themselves to sleep at night because they feel abandoned. The grief of divorce is often more devasta-ting than the grief of death because of that inevitable feeling of not only being abandoned but also being rejected.
This is not to minimize the pain at the death of a loved one, of course, particularly a beloved wife or husband. Often even in the case of an unavoidable death, there is a feeling of betrayal: "How could you leave me now when I need you so much?" You may have thought you were the only one who has felt that way. You are not.
And, of course, we dare not forget the sick and the aged. Across this land in hospitals & in nursing & convalescent homes there are thousands--perhaps millions--of persons who feel abandoned--alone--rejected--betrayed.
Does anyone care? The Bible is very explicit: Jesus cares.
Jesus was concerned about His disciples. They had left everything to follow Him. They had staked their lives on their belief that He was the anointed One of God. Now He was leaving them. They were sorrowful & they were confused. What would they do now? Where would they go? Whom would they turn to? Jesus perceived their fear and apprehension. "I must go away." He said, "But I will send you a Comforter."
Doubtless those words fell on deaf ears just as did the prophecy of His resurrection. Who is this Comforter, this Counsellor, this Spirit of truth? What is this the Master is trying to say to us?
They did not understand until the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon them. That is understandable. How can you describe the indescribable? How can you put in human terms what no man had ever experienced before?
When the Day of Pentecost came, though, the Holy Spirit came upon them & filled them with power--the power to become new people--the power to set new goals for their lives--the power to enjoy life again as a gift from God--the power to be victorious in every circumstance of life. Suddenly they no longer felt abandoned, confused, fearful. They were so filled with a kind of joyful glee that they were accused of being intoxicated at 9 o'clock in the morning.
My friends, Christ has promised you & me that same Spirit. You may be going through a time of turmoil & crisis in your life right now. You may feel very much afraid and helpless & alone. But Christ has not abandoned you. His Spirit is still available to you. He wants to give you his power.
He wants to give you the
POWER, FIRST OF ALL, TO BECOME A NEW PERSON.
But how? There is only one way.
Henry Ward Beecher once said, "I should as soon attempt to raise flowers if there were no atmosphere, or produce fruits if there were no light nor heat, as to regenerate men if I did not believe there was a Holy Spirit."
The power to become a new person comes from within. It comes from God. We cannot do it alone.
Of course, sometimes change hurts. C.S. Lewis once described the process of radical change like this:
"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right & stopping the leaks in the roof & so on...But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably & does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to?
The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come & live in it Himself."
Change never comes easily. But you can change. He can make it possible. The power to become a new person is the power His Spirit brings.
He also gives us the
POWER TO SET NEW GOALS FOR OUR LIVES.
Bible translators have not known what to do with the Greek word for the Holy Spirit, PARAKLETOS. This word, sometimes referred to as "Paraclete," is variously translated "Counselor," "Advocate," "Helper," and "the God who stands by you." The King James Version renders it best as "Comforter," a word which comes from 2 old English words that mean "strengthen greatly."
"Comforter" should not convey the weak notion of a soft, woolly blanket that wraps around infants to keep them warm.....
....although that is the expectation of too many Christians about the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, He makes us strong. When the Spirit came upon him, Samson tore a lion to pieces (Judges 14:5-6). When Luke explains how the early church was built up "in the comfort of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9:31), he is referring to the Spirit's power, not to soothe and console, but to fortify and serve.
How can you go on? You can go on by believing that God yet has work for you to do. He will give you the power to make new plans, set new goals, climb new mountains. The power to become a new person, the power to set new goals, climb new mountains.
And the
POWER TO ENJOY LIFE--HERE & NOW.
"When they told me there was treatment but no cure at this time, I dropped to my knees. Two things from out of my past, when I went to church as a child, came back to me. Number one,"Where can I go but to the Lord?" & #2, "I am weak, but He is strong."
The 3rd feeling I had was, "When life comes down to basics, really how little control we all have over our own lives." And it also came to me, even if we live to be 100, how really short life here is. And therefore, it's important to enjoy it & not rush so fast, and take time to smell the roses."
Dr. Dwayne Dyer in his book YOUR ERRONEOUS ZONES tells us we must forget that nonsense about today being the 1st day of the rest of your lives. Today is not only the 1st day, it is the only day that we are promised. None of us can count on tomorrow. All we have for sure is today. It is God's will that we should live this day to the fullest.
That is what Jesus meant when he said, "Take no thought for tomorrow...." Some at 25 are already worrying about how we are going to make it when we get to be 65. Some of us are worrying so much that we may never make it to 65. We do have today. What a tragedy it would be to drown ourselves in heartache & sorrow & self pity over a tomorrow that may never dawn. This is the day that the Lord hath made.
But there is a final power that the Holy Spirit gives us, & that is the
POWER TO BE VICTORIOUS IN EVERY CIRCUMSTANCE.
"One afternoon, when I was a little girl, the teacher announced that there would be no school the next day because the old man who lived in the turreted mansion had died. I was puzzled. Many people died. Why close the school for this man?"
"I asked Stuart, who was in the 8th grade & usually knew everything. `He owned the factory, didn't he?' Stuart said, amazed at my ignorance. `That's about as powerful as you can get around here.'"
"Isn't this how many of us think of power?" she asks, "The richest man in town, the man who can control others?"
"But power has many guises. My father was a kind & gentle country minister in Nova Scotia. He had neither money nor fame. No one, I am sure, was ever afraid of him.
When he was 64 years old, he received a letter from a church official in one of his old parishes. `We hear that you will soon be retiring,' the man wrote. `Would you come & settle here? We feel that we'd be a better community & better neighbors for having a man whose life is so genuine living among us.'"
"Imagine changing a community just by being oneself. That is power."
"I think of a homely little man in Athens more that 2000 years ago who died because he asked dangerous questions. His audiences were very small; yet there is no literate person in the world today who has not heard of Socrates. I think of St. Francis of Assis, who gave up a pampered life to live in poverty while comforting the poor and the sick.
And of Mohandas Gandhi, who freed his people from the most powerful empire of this time, without any force except what he called `truth force.'"
And we think of early disciples after Pentecost. My friends, you & I can live powerful lives as well. He has not abandoned us. We can become new people--we can set new goals for our lives--we can enjoy each day as a gift from God--we can be victorious over every circumstance. By the power of His Holy Spirit we need never feel abandoned again.
