It’s 6:01 EST on May 21, 2011, and I’m still here. My guess is, so are you, and so is Harold Camping…for now. But among others, I can think of three things that aren’t: the hope of many who put their faith in a man who was a lying snake, the money that they gave him, and the credibility of the church in the eyes of many who still need Jesus.
Now, it’s time to restore at least 2 of those, and as sad as it is that some people may have lost entire life savings over this garbage about the Rapture happening today, I think the money was the least valuable of the three. Thankfully, it’s the only one that can’t be recovered.
First, hope has to be restored for those who believed Camping and now find themselves feeling like people on the outside looking in.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)
They had hope. Granted, they had hope in a man, and worse than that, a man’s interpretation of the Bible that clouded their own and the years of church tradition. But the proverb makes no distinction between whether the hope was wrongly or rightly placed, just that it once was and now isn’t. And when we hope for something and don’t receive it, our hearts – the very core of who we are – grow sick. I hurt for the numbers of people who are sick right now, and are wondering what comes next.
The best part of this verse for those who have lost hope? That wonderful, three-lettered word “but.” If you had put all your faith in an event that didn’t happen, that word means your story isn’t over. 6:01 does not define you. There is still more to be learned, to be seen. There is life to find, and it comes through seeing your longings fulfilled. My guess is that you long for truth, trust, a shoulder to cry on and arms to hold you tightly as you weather what you feel now. Doubt. Betrayal. Anger. Embarrassment. In a word, you long for Jesus.
Times like these make me wish that Jesus would really show up and let the hurting see Him for who He is instead of risking it all by letting man distort the image. Camping distorted it, and if we’re not careful, how we respond now will further distort it. There is no doubt that restoring credibility in the eyes of an unbelieving world – which now has even more reason to not believe – will be a long road. But ultimately, it begins and ends with holding up the truth. I say we start here:
I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds. (Jeremiah 23:21-22)
How do we restore credibility in the eyes of the world and hope to the hearts of the sick? We shut up if we haven’t been with Jesus. We absolutely refuse to speak our agenda over His truth, and we resolve to become a church that says less, but says it with more honesty, authenticity, and compassion.
I believe that this is the church the hurting long to see. A simpler church, a real church, a church full of confidence and power in God’s word. If we will become that church, I believe we’ll find ourselves saying less to more people than we used to, and we’ll begin to see hope restored in their lives.
So now, let us begin.
