St Andrews PCEA Church - Nairobi

“This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope…” Lamentations 3:21
God’s love launches deeper than all roughness; and God’s mercy lasts longer than any misery.
The legendary Tanzanian Musician Mbaraka Mwinshehe sang a song title Shida (life’s difficulties). In this very insightful social commentary, he sings about the difficulties in life. They are indiscriminate. They pass through the barricaded and gated palace to eat up the king with the same ease they invade the gateless home of his subordinate. They are unfamiliar with class

They hit the rich with the same hurricane force as the poor.  Trouble permeates even happy events, like weddings, traditionally supposed to be the most joyous of human events. To confirm this, not a long time ago we observed an incident where a bride forgot her “white dressedness” and boxed a caterer,  her manicured bridal nails ferociously ploughing the caterer’s face! Reason? The caterer was unbelievably late in delivering the food  - a fairly tale turned a trouble tell.

Trouble always troubles. Tough times are always unfamiliar. And tough moments always come with a package of emotions. Painful emotions. Downward-facing  emotions. The pain they bring takes different shades. Sadness. Worthlessness.  Confusion. Hopelessness. Depression. Defeat. Foolishness.  Loneliness. Fear. They make you feel unloved, rejected, cheap, cheated and lost. They could also make you feel angry, violent, suicidal and even murderous.  These emotions are fabricated inside the being of a person and have a greater precision to destroy and eat up than any external physical or chemical weapon.

The book of Lamentations is poem of weeping.  Jeremiah is graphic as he paints his emotion of pain. He rigorously interrogates how God is dealing with him and clearly, he is thoroughly unimpressed.  Things are rough and he is miserable. But in the midst of these ponderings, another thought streams into his mind – that of the love and mercy of God. This sets up a mental debate in Jeremiah’s mind: rough versus love and misery versus mercy.  What resuscitates Jeremiah is  form - that love is “steadfast” and mercy “unending.”   His mind is comforted by the apex insight that God’s loves launches deeper than all roughness, and God’s mercy lasts longer than any misery.  
Friend, it is dangerous to employ democracy when it comes to who controls your mental faculty. Do not subject your mind to the vote!  You have the right of call. It is you to “call to mind” the head of your head. Jeremiah “calls to mind” the steadfast love and unending mercy of God. This mental “call” dethrones his lifeless thoughts and enthrones hope as the thread by which all thoughts are sewn. Note - not just any hope -Godly hope.

Hope in turn generates its package of emotions. Upward-tending emotions. Life-mediating emotions. Strength. Success. Resurrection. Ability. Capacity. Victory. Confidence. As Rich Mullins sang, hope brings freshness and “You can begin again, with the passion of a child.”  Hope makes you feel accepted, affirmed and loved at the Highest Level.  And you can be sure that the love of God, the Easing Master, will never betray you.

Pastor Buri E.