I’m starting to forget things. It’s nothing to worry about or go running to the nearest health professional. It’s just that I’m starting to have more and more of those “senior moments.” They come in various forms but the physical manifestations are all the same. I’m thinking about something and then the focus seem to slip from my mind. I halt what I’m doing and stand very still. My hand comes to my brow as if I can gather up the stray thoughts and push them back in. Then comes the exasperated sigh when I find that I’ve derailed myself. On some occasions, if I just relax the thought will pop up like a startled bunny scampering through the underbrush. I find that I then chase it with joy, revealing in the remembering.
Lamentations is not one of those books in the Bible that many go to for encouragement and strength. It was penned by Jeremiah, known as the “weeping prophet.” Jeremiah ministered during the final days of Judah before the Babylonian captivity. What had been a golden age for the Holy Land under David and Solomon had disintegrated into this final indignity of God’s people being led away into captivity. No wonder most of Jeremiah’s writings are dark and discouraged.
But, as a diamond displayed on black velvet are these words in Lamentations 3. In the midst of discouragement, Jeremiah remembers. And this memory brings a precious by-product – hope!
What was this focus that eclipsed the storm of indignities that were overshadowing Him? He simply said, “I remember the Lord’s lovingkindnesses.”
The Hebrew word for term we translate “lovingkindness” is an obscure one. Most scholars are a bit puzzled and there are as many ideas as there are students of God’s Word. It sounds as if God were like a cosmic Boy Scout helping people with good deeds in a nice way. He helps us across the street or picks up the paper that we dropped.
But, for my part, the meaning that resonates with me is that of “loving loyalty.” Way too many Christians see themselves as bothering God as He goes about the important job of running the universe. They picture themselves as slightly obnoxious children who must continually be brought back into line by a Father who seems to be uninvolved.
Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. Jeremiah tells us that God’s loving loyalty – His “staying with us” because of His delight in us – never ceases. There’s never a time when He is not on our side. Yes, sin does interrupt the communication and enjoyment that we have in our relationship … but it never completely breaks it.
Why is that? It’s because His “compassions” never fail. The word refers to His emotional involvement with His children. Our Heavenly Father is never, ever a spectator to the human condition. He is involved both in doing something and in what is being felt.
I had lunch with a friend this week whom I had not seem in some time. Earl is a pastor who first welcomed me back to Sacramento when we returned in 1994. One of the things I appreciate about Earl is his ability to stay emotionally involved. When I spoke of my family or what God was doing with us here at First Free, I could see the emotions run across His face. He was following every point I was making with both His head and His heart!
This is also true of the God who delights in us. We are not only on His mind as His children; we are in His heart. Jeremiah tells us that this emotional connectedness is “new every morning.” In other words, God never suffers from compassion fatigue. He never needs to take a time-out from us because we have taxed His patience.
God’s faithfulness – His loving loyalty – is great. The Bible is replete with the reality of God not giving up on us. There are no situations, circumstances or people that thwart God’s interest in us. There’s only our own lack – a lack of allowing God to do what He wants to do in our hearts and lives.
2 Kings 22-23
