The Hole

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love…….

With your eyes closed all you know is that it is cold.  You are not sure where you are or how you got here.  As you slowly open your eyes what light there is seems only to add to the darkness.  It would be so much better if there were total darkness.  In total darkness you could just close your eyes and never know.

But now you know.  You are in a hole.  Somehow you are sitting cross legged in the bottom of deep hole, maybe an abandoned well.  As your eyes begin to adjust to the limited light you look around.  To your surprise there are other people with you but no one seems to be awake and everyone seems to be injured.  You cannot move your legs and it appears that no one else can either because of the debris that has fallen in the hole.  Escaping the hole without help will be impossible.

As you lean back against the outer wall of the hole, assessing your situation, knowing that this hole has become your grave, you hear something.  Initially, you look around, expecting to see that someone else has moved.  But no one has.  Everyone is still either asleep or worse.  No one is moving.  But there it is again.  Then you realize that what you are hearing is the sound of dirt falling into the hole.  You look up and as you do, your hear a voice coming from someone peering in the hole.  You can’t see him but you know his voice and as he says, “Do not be afraid, I will rescue you!” and your heart leaps.

No one else in the hole heard the voice because everyone else is either asleep or deceased.  But you know you heard the voice and better yet, you know the person whose voice you heard.  He has been a faithful friend and he has shared his heart with you.  You know him and you are fully persuaded that he has the ability and the power to do what he has promised.  You have faith.

Faith is a matter of believing in someone because of who they are not because of what they do or say.  Their heart is what matters and you only know someone’s heart by spending quality time in their presence.  Watching someone perform incredible acts or listening to someone share amazing wisdom is not enough to have faith.  What matters is what is in their heart and the heart is revealed by relationship.  A relationship always involves disclosure and disclosure always involves the risk of rejection.  Only someone who loves enough to risk rejection through full disclosure can ever really be trusted.  Faith must always have an object and your faith can only be as strong as the revealed faithfulness of the object of your faith.

Once again there is silence.  The object of your faith has moved away from the top of the hole, he is no longer visible and you can no longer hear him.  You have a choice to make.  Are you going to focus on the circumstances of the hole, try to save yourself and struggle with all of your remaining strength or are you going to exhibit patient endurance and rest by focusing on the object of your faith?  Patience is the quality of resting under the pressure of suffering.  Patience is only possible when you have hope.  Hope is confident expectation of good based on a settled faith.  And faith is activated when you focus on the object of your faith in the midst of your trials.  What will you do?

You look around.  Some of the others have begun to move.  They are in worse condition than you and none of them heard the voice, although it does not matter that they missed it.  You are the only one in the hole who knows the voice.  More importantly you are the only one who knows the heart of the one who spoke.  Faith and hope do not focus on the promises.  Faith and hope focus on the heart of the object of your faith and hope.  You grow your faith and hope by spending time in the presence of the object of your faith and hope and you exercise your faith and hope by focusing on the object of your faith and hope.

You close your eyes and lean back again but not to scheme or struggle.  This time with your eyes closed you remember the faithfulness of the one who spoke.  You hear his words again, “Do not be afraid, I will rescue you.”  You have hope.  You rest in the assurance of hope.  An odd thing begins to well up inside you considering the circumstances.  You begin to have this unmistakable feeling of joy.  Joy is the fruit of knowing a secret that results in hope and is very hard to contain as it bubbles up from the depths of your heart.

The delight that you feel begins to shine in the bottom of the hole.  People around you begin to notice the glow in your eyes and the contentment on your face.  They can tell that you are at rest but they do not know why.  Some of them are envious, but most of them are angry, sure that you are either crazy, delusional or heartless.  What they do not know is that you know a secret.  The foundation of joy is knowing a secret.

Now you have another choice but it’s not really a choice.  The only reason that you have joy is because you have hope.  And the only reason you have hope is because you have faith.  And the only reason you have faith is because you know the person whom you heard say, “Do not be afraid, I will rescue you.”  And the only reason you know him is because he has revealed himself to you and has shown himself to be faithful.  He has opened his heart to you.  Now you have a choice to make, it’s not really a choice, because your faith, hope and joy have produced love in your heart for the one who spoke and his love has compelled you to share his love with those around you.

Until he comes back all you can do is share your heart with those around you.  Many will not understand you and will be offended, defensive or antagonistic.  But you must share because you cannot help yourself.  The reality of your joy is evident to all and people begin asking you questions – “How can you be so stupid?”; “How can you be so calm?”;  “Where do I get what you have?”; or “Why do you think you so special?”  With each question comes opportunity.  Your peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness express the love and joy that you have within based upon your foundation of faith in the one who spoke.  The sum of the parts manifests itself in self control.  Their ears and hearts are open.

Now you can tell them about the heart of the one who spoke.  You can relay to them his faithfulness and his ways.  As you pour out your heart to those around you, you simultaneously reveal your love for him as you express your love for them.  Love poured out is love poured in.  The depth of your love testifies to the reality of your faith.  Your hope and joy patiently draw people around you to the truth.  And the truth that has already set you free begins to set others free.

The bottom of the hole though filled with imperfect and hurting people has become a place of hope.  Faith that began when faithfulness was revealed to you has been faithfully transferred by the witness of patient endurance, hope and joy.  People’s focus has been turned away from themselves and the circumstance of the hole and has been turned toward the faithfulness of the source of faith.  His words have become truth and they have become the source of life, hope and joy.

No one hopes for what he already has because if you already have it you do not need to hope you will have it.  But hope (confident expectation of good) allows you to wait patiently for the thing hoped for because in the very fact of hope the promise is received.  The words of the faithful speaker were, “Do not afraid, I will rescue you.” and in hope they have become truth even before they have become material fact.  The benefit of the faithful promise is delivered in the package of the promise and the unwrapping of the package is a foregone conclusion.

The speaker has not yet returned, but the believers have already been rescued from the hole.  The hole that at first appeared to be a grave has now become a temple.  The spirit of the one who spoke has filled the hole lifting everyone who believes to the light and life above the hole.  Faith has led to patience, produced hope, quickened joy and compelled love.  The one who promised is faithful and he will be back.  But until he does, these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.

 

 

 

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