Breathe

The Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi, North Vietnam

"Am I a God near at hand," says the LORD, "And not a God afar off?  Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?"  says the LORD; "Do I not fill heaven and earth?"  says the LORD.

Jeremiah 23: 23-24 NKJV 

It was one of the most unassuming buildings in Hanoi, but soon came to harbor a brutal reputation.  For many of the American airmen who were shot down over North Vietnam, the journey to the infamous Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi was a hellish trip indeed.  Roughly translated as  "Hells Hole," the Hanoi Hilton as it was known was often the final stop on the American prisoners journey.  Once inside, these men would endure years of cruel interogations and torture.  One of the most brutal of these methods employed by the North Vietnamese army was that of solitary confinement.  If one was unlucky enough to warrant such treatment, the scars would last a lifetime.  It was lonliness.  It was isolation from ones comrades.  Minutes became hours as all contact with the outside world was taken away.  The very things we might take for granted, the morning sunrise, a soft breeze and even the sound of a familiar voice were suddenly ripped away from these unlucky few.  The ultimate goal of such torture, of course, was to force the individual to give in to the demands of his captors.  It is no wonder that such treatment is outlawed by the Geneva Convention on treatment of Prisoners of War.  Lonliness, at its core, is one of the worst feelings one may face.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

Galations 2:20 NKJV 

Like most christians, I've often felt the tug of fear at the thought that God has somehow abandoned me.  Of course, I know this in my heart to be a lie, but there are times when these feelings continue to come to pass.  I can honestly say that the feeling that God has abandoned us is one of the greatest lies ever perpetrated by satan.  Have you ever felt as if God has somehow abandoned you?  Well, ask yourself just one question when this happens, who benefits the most from driving a wedge between you and God?  Of course, that is satan!  The father of lies, whose deception led to the fall of mankind into sin is a master of lies and deception.  For His part, our loving heavenly Father has promised to never leave us or forsake us.  I'm thinking that when God says never, he means it.  For our Lord is incapabe of lying, it's just not in His nature.

  My mother would have a saying which she would tell me whenever my feelings of lonliness would lead me to believe that God was somehow afar off from my situation.  As she would tell me so many times, "God is as close as our next breath."  Think about that, we need never wonder if our Lord Jesus is in our corner, we need never go searching for Him.  He has never left us!  In fact, as Paul tells us in Galations 2:20, Christ Jesus now lives in me!  This life I live, I live as Christ!  How is it, then, that Jesus has ever left us?  Our flesh may conjure up feelings of abandonment and lonliness in times of our despair, but in time like these we can rest assured that Jesus is not far off, but we are living out our situation with Christ who is in each of us.  Take a moment, breathe, and realize that this life you live, you live as Jesus.

~Scott~