Whose Lifeline Am I?

Everybody has times when they feel like giving up. Giving up on a task, on a job, on a person. Giving up on a dream or a goal or even life itself. I am deeply saddened when I see or hear of a person reaching that point. Because it means that person has been overtaken with hopelessness that consumed him, and he had no hope of deliverance, no light at all in that dark, scary place. I'm alarmed by how many people even just around me, even people that I love, struggle with depression and mental anguish that makes them live in daily defeat. (I'm going somewhere with this and I promise I will end this on a positive note!)

I think those of us who are NOT struggling with depression at the present time should realize that we are the lifeline to those who are! Literally we are holding the life preserver (but too often we forget we're holding it). People all around us are facing severe hardships in their hearts. We must be sensitive to their needs and MINISTER, MINISTER, MINISTER as we are led by the Spirit. And we must never think that we are "immune" as Christians, or as "strong" people, because later on in life, we might need someone ELSE to be a lifeline for us! I think of depression like quicksand. You can't get out of it by yourself. The more you struggle alone, the more it covers you. It takes someone else or something else to hold onto--to PULL YOU OUT.

Recently a friend at school lost a good friend, a Christian man in his church, to suicide. This friend of his took his own life, leaving behind a wife and several other children, mostly because of financial problems. And my friend felt so badly that he had not picked up on the "signs"---that he could not realize the pain his friend was enduring. It was such a shock. And just last week, another man at school lost a soon-to-be son-in-law, also due to suicide, also a Christian, and also a shock. When I hear of these things, I do not judge those people for what they did. I understand their hopelessness. I also understand that someone may have been able to help them out of that quicksand, if they knew they were in it. Someone who is hurting really badly will not always let anyone KNOW that they're in pain. But the Holy Spirit can clue us in! Even the little things we do for others can "rescue" them from darkness.

I remember our friend Manny's testimony--a Puerto Rican guy we know who was in a gang in Philadelphia when he was young. Regularly up to no good and on the fast track to destruction. He hated the life he was in but didn't know how to get out of it. He wanted to kill himself, but there was a girl who would walk by his "hangout" corner and just SMILE the most kind smile, the most sincere smile. He saw her almost every day, and it kept him from killing himself. And finally after awhile, he had the courage to ask her, "Why are you smiling like that every time I see you?". And she shared Jesus with him right then and there. And he went to church with her and he got saved and his whole life was changed. A simple SMILE led to that. You just NEVER know what people are dealing with. We gotta love them even when they're acting like jerks! God, help us see people through YOUR eyes.

I long for heaven. I believe most believers do. Some days I want Jesus to come back so badly I can't stand it! It's hard to wait for it. I want to share with you something that I read that I really like, about how when we get fed up with this life, what we are REALLY longing for deep down is heaven. We long for the life God intended us to have on earth. For EDEN. Lost people and saved people long for this, but we don't always realize that's what we're longing for.

"We are homesick for Eden. We long for what the first man and woman once enjoyed- a perfect and beautiful earth with free and untainted relationships with God, each other, animals, and our environment. Every attempt at human progress has been an attempt to overcome what was lost in the Fall. We live our lives on a sin-corrupted earth, between Eden and the New Earth, but we must never forget that this is not our natural state. Sin and death and suffering and war and poverty are not natural-they are the devastating results of our rebellion against God. We long to return to Paradise- a perfect world, without the corruption of sin, where God walks with us and talks with us in the cool of the day. Because we're human beings, we desire something tangible and physical, something that will not fade away. And that is exactly what God promises us- a home that will not be destroyed, a kingdom that will not fade, a city with unshakable foundations, an incorruptible inheritance."

We will reach heaven soon enough---but while we're here in the sin-infested world, we can BUILD the kingdom of heaven by SPREADING HIS LOVE to EVERYBODY we meet. EVERYBODY we come across, even strangers. They are loved by God and we must love them. We could be loving them right to Jesus' feet. If you know someone having a hard time, TALK to them. Tell them they are loved. Tell them WHY THEY ARE HERE and WHY LIFE IS WORTH LIVING. Because it could make a bigger difference than you know.

I am posting a Josh Groban video here that I can't seem to watch enough. I first heard this song a few months ago and it speaks volumes to my heart. Apply the words as though God is singing them straight to you. And as you should sing them to the people who hurt. I love this song and the video. It inspires me to love others more and NOT to GIVE UP on this life.

JUDE 14-25 encapsulate everything I'm trying to say in this entry. These verses tell us exactly how we are supposed to live. They tell us we ARE the lifeline to those lost and drowning in the quicksand, heading for the fire instead of the new Eden. We're here now to do ALL WE CAN for them. IT IS OUR PURPOSE.