There's Got To Be A Morning After

'Weeping may remain for a night but rejoicing comes in the morning' Psalms 30:5

Hope. Someone in church, whom we were praying for, taught me about hope. She was going through chemotherapy and she wrote, “But I will hang on to God no matter what. He promised to take away all my sins and sicknesses. He has a purpose to give me this new hope at this worst moment of my life. This is my first GOOD NEWS, my first HOPE and my confirmation that GOD has not given up on me yet.” 

The phrase, God has not given up on me yet, reminded me of the lamentations of Prophet Jeremiah. He was devastated when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem in 586 BC. He saw the horrors and ravages of war inflicted upon his people. They were left with no food, no rest and no peace. In the depths of despair Jeremiah found hope in the faithfulness of God. He recalled his previous experiences and he wrote, 

'I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.' Lamentation 3:19-24. 

Kent Nerburn (Ref 1) talked of his experience with a total stranger one night, “He stared back at me with the saddest eyes I had ever seen. Tears rolled down his cheeks. I do not believe that I have ever seen, before or since, such a tortured look upon the face of another human being.” This stranger in the night was a respected judge who that morning had run his car into a young girl who stepped unexpectedly on to the road. He had killed her instantly. Since then he had been walking the streets aimlessly and drunk. 

Kent had tried to console the man but was told, “Don’t talk. I don’t need words. I just need to be near somebody.” Kent wrote, “I stayed with him on that street long into the night. He did not wish to go anywhere. He did not wish to talk. Occasionally he would take my hand; occasionally he would be overcome with deep and heaving sobs. But whenever I tried to leave or allow him the privacy of his own grief, he would grab my hand to make me stay.”

St Francis prayed that where there is despair let him bring hope. Despair hits the human spirit; a darkness that snuffs out the dim light of every possibility. No logic, no consolation, no word can heal. As Nerburn had experienced, all the despairing spirit needs is our presence and the quiet witness of our redeemed souls. When we keep vigil with a person trapped in that darkness, we are denying that spirit from plunging into the emptiness. We provide good, silent Christian witness, a light that defy the overwhelming darkness until the morning comes.

This vigil is aptly described in a song, 'There’s got to be a morning after,' which is the signature song of a disaster movie, the Poseidon Adventure. 

There's got to be a morning after

If we can hold on through the night

We have a chance to find the sunshine

Let's keep on looking for the light.

Oh can't you see the morning after?

It's waiting right outside the storm

Why don't we cross the bridge together

And find a place that's safe and warm.

It's not too late, we should be giving

Only with love can we climb

It's not too late, not while we're living

Let's put our hands out in time

There's got to be a morning after

We're moving closer to the shore

I know we'll be there by tomorrow

And we'll escape the darkness

We won't be searching anymore

This is a song of hope and hope is found in the Bible. My church friend derived her optimism from the hope found in reading her Bible. Similarly if we are ever downcast, seek refuge in God. He has plans for us

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13.

He's only a prayer away

I asked the Lord to comfort me

When things weren’t going my way;

He said to me “I will comfort you

And lift your cares away.”

I asked the Lord to walk with me,

When darkness was all that I knew;

He said to me, “Never be afraid,

for I will see you through.”

I did not ask for riches,

He gave me wealth untold-

The moon, the stars, the sun, the sky,

And He gave me eyes to behold

I thank the Lord for everything,

And I count my blessing each day;

He came to me when I needed Him-

I only had to pray:

He'll come to you if you'll ask Him to -

He's only a prayer away

I asked the Lord to lead the way

When each step was getting so rough

He said to me, "Put your trust in me

And I'll direct your path."

I asked the Lord to come inside 

And take all my struggles away

He said to me, "Cast your cares on me

And live each day by day."

Lionel

Updated article, 1st published Mar 2008

Ref 1: Kent Nerburn, Make Me An Instrument Of Your Peace - Living in the Spirit of the Prayer of Saint Francis. Chap 5 Where there is despair hope. HarperOne 1st Edition 1999.

And Tigers Come At Night

Yunnan Stone Forest - The Tiger

'Lord what do I look for? My hope is in You' Psalm 39:7

In late Oct 2009, when visiting the Stone Forest in Kunming, Yunnan, we chanced upon a rock formation that took the shape of a tiger. Immediately the song 'I dreamed a Dream' came to mind, with its haunting line 'but the tigers come at night'. The song is a lament; the dreams of youth, once ever so promising, turned to ashes with the passing of time and with it, the dawning of hopelessness.

The song was sung by Fantine in the musical 'Les Miserables'. She had a love affair with a student, Tholomyes but he deserted her, leaving behind an illegitimate child. She became a prostitute, a destitute so poor that she had to sell her hair and teeth to clothe and feed her bastard child. Her once growing love became a bitter disappointment.

Fantine was emblematic of the plight of women, their sufferings, social wretchedness and hopelessness during the days of their exploitation in 18th and 19th centuries. 

There was a time when men were kind

When their voices were soft

And their words inviting

There was a time when love was blind

And the world was a song

And the song was exciting

There was a time

Then it all went wrong

I dreamed a dream in times gone by

When hope was high and life worth living

I dreamed, that love would never die

I dreamed that God would be forgiving

Then I was young and unafraid

And dreams were made and used and wasted

There was no ransom to be paid

No song unsung, no wine untasted

But the tigers come at night

With their voices soft as thunder

As they tear your hope apart

As they turn your dream to shame

He slept a summer by my side

He filled my days with endless wonder

He took my childhood in his stride

But he was gone when autumn came

And still I dream he'll come to me

That we will live the years together

But there are dreams that cannot be

And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I'm living

So different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed the dream

I dreamed

In the Covid-stricken circumstances of 2019-present, many of us must feel that the tigers have come at night and shattered our dreams. It is not only the patients that are the victims. Many have dreams in life yet to be realised. Others are happy with life having achieved their dreams. Unexpectedly, the pandemic hit and disrupted everything.

  

It is not easy to face the ‘tigers’ and one should not wish for them to come a-haunting. If they do come, beware; despair can really break a person. Will we lose hope? Will we lose faith? 

St. Francis of Assisi once prayed, where there is despair let us sow hope. The Psalmist in Psalms 42 and 43 searched for answers and questioned the soul within, not once but three times. The answer is to put our hopes in God.

'As the deer pants for the water,

so my soul pants for you, O God.

Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him,

By day the LORD directs his love,

at night his song is with me.

How can we hope at such hopeless times? Christianity answers with the call to rely on God. When everything seems to be falling apart, we can

 

Rely on God's presence

Rely on God's provision

Rely on God's promises

Although the shattering of dreams can be devastating, take comfort in the words of Jesus in John 16:33  

'I have told you these things, so that in Me you will have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.' John 16:33

Finally, 

'Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer' Romans 12:12

Lionel

1st Published 3 Feb 2010