Suggested Readings: Psalm 126, Isaiah 43:8-15, Philippians 2:25-3:1
People who have grown up in certain sorts of Christian communities will be used to the question: “What are you giving up for Lent?” As I reflected on the two Old Testament passages for today, I was surprised by an interesting idea: “What if this year for Lent, I were to give up despair?”
Of course, traditionally, the Lenten season is a time of penitence and sobriety. We set aside false comforts; indulgences that distract, or that dull us to the voice of God and the needs of others. We set aside enjoyable things – chocolate, or coffee, or that game I like to play on my phone. And all of that is just fine, of course. We might notice however that what these passages refuse to indulge, is the temptation to despair. They are written in the midst of various sorrows and disappointments, and yet they each affirm (in the wonderful words of the Black Church tradition) that “trouble don’t last always.”
They are passages poised between remembered and anticipated joy, and those are the fixed points that orient the authors’ vision: God’s past faithfulness, and God’s promised deliverance. “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion” the psalm writer remembers, “we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.” (Psalm 126:1-2) And so he goes on to plead: “Restore our fortunes, LORD, like streams in the Negev.” (v. 4)
Isaiah reminds a Hebrew people exiled in Babylon of how God delivered their ancestors from Egypt. The LORD, he reminds them, is:
He who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again.
It is this same God who promises: “For your sake I will send to Babylon and bring down as fugitives all the Babylonians, in the ships in which they took pride.” (v. 14)
It also occurs to me that – ironically – if I were to give up despair, I might find myself making some more traditional Lenten sacrifices as well. How often do I open the game on my phone, not because it gives me joy, but because I can’t bear to think about my to-do list? How often do I have that unhealthy snack, not because I’m hungry, but because I need something to cheer me up? How often are sugar, and caffeine, and entertainment a way of self-medicating in the face of a relentlessly depressing news cycle?
In Isaiah 43 we read: “I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior” (v. 11). These are stern and sobering words! Acknowledging God as the only savior means surrendering the many other false hopes and comforts (large and small) to which I turn for encouragement or distraction. On the other hand, acknowledging the unique authority and majesty of God (apart from me there is no savior!) also relativizes all the darknesses we face. There is no god but God. “Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me,” the Lord declares through Isaiah. (v. 10) This means that there is no problem, no crisis, no unjust government, no corrupt leader, no insoluble social, financial, political, cultural or personal dilemma that stands above God. We have no hope outside of God, which means that for Lent, we give up every other hope. But neither do we face any darkness that is above or beyond God; which means that for Lent, we can give up despair.
Steve Guthrie
