Legacy of Hope: A Fresh Look at Faith

By Paul Cherry

Think about it! What if you're stuck in a life situation with little or no hope for anything different? You have a nagging fear that you have never been really good enough to win God's smile. "There is nothing I could ever do to make you love me more, and there is nothing I could ever do to make you love me less." What if it

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stratton Press
• Release date: Oct 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781947355132

Paul Cherry

Paul Cherry is founder and president of Performance Based Results, an international sales training organization. An in-demand speaker and sales expert, he has been featured in Investor’s Business Daily, Selling Power, Inc., Kiplinger’s, and other leading publications.

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PREFACE 

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"W ho’d a thunk it?" my brothers and I used to say about something unimaginable…like me writing a book! My good wife, Carole, planted the idea in my head months ago as I moved toward retirement from thirty-five years of ministry. Other friends along the way tossed the idea across my path with me totally tripping over it. But as I approached the actual date of retirement, and my creative juices were kicking in to come up with my vision for the direction of life in my new freedom, I saw an ad for new authors that just happened, as they say; or God spoke to me, as we say, which motivated me to move forward with the book idea. That seemed to be less of a suggestion and more of a calling that may have deserved more than a shrug from me.

At any rate, here I am, working out what I consider to be obedience to a higher calling. The journey of faith started at the age of nine for me, and I wish I could say that it has always been a glorious success. It has not. I have been in the deep water of spiritual chaos, tossed about with my own faithless search of affection, and I have been on the arid deserts of spiritual barrenness. But the grace of the Almighty has sustained me. I have lusted for more of Gomorrah and run from Nineveh with Jonah, but gently, lovingly, and forcefully, the Lover of Souls has wooed me back into his glory and goodness, lavishing his grace on my past, sustaining and empowering my present, and lacing my future with hope and courage.

Like Brennan Manning and the brotherhood of ragamuffins, I simply bring my brokenness and pain to the Master who called me from weariness and burdensome living to find rest under his companionship. I can do nothing more important than respond to him with delightful worship and dutiful obedience.

After writing this preface, I reread Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s insightful exploration of church life in the book Life Together. It moved me to the core again, and I discovered that it was a wonderful companion of this book, like Pilgrim’s Progress is a companion writing to Dr. Seuss. I get that, but nevertheless, I shrink in the presence of Bonhoeffer and gratefully attach some of his great writing to my rambling thoughts. I stayed up all night on one occasion dreaming of the possible connections.

Thank you, Carole, for loving and forgiving.

Thank you, family—all of you—for saying I was a good son, father, husband, and grandpa with surprising sincerity, even when at times my immediate response to life left some of you wondering.

Thank you, spiritual family of Fiddletown Church, that through the grace and power of God, you were able to call me worthy, and you bestowed great generosity and kindness to me in retirement.

Thank you, Debbie Curry, for sharing the administrative demands of ministry with me and for being the second pair of eyes for this writing endeavor. 

OUT OF BORDERLAND

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We become part of what took place for our salvation. Forgetting and losing ourselves, we too pass through the Red Sea, through the desert, across the Jordan into the promised land. With Israel we fall into doubt and unbelief, and through punishment and repentance experience again God’s help and faithfulness. All this is not mere reverie, but holy, godly reality. We are torn out of our own existence and set down in the midst of holy history of God on earth.  

—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am sometimes saddened to hear someone indicate that they are stuck—stuck in a miserable job, stuck in a meaningless career, stuck in a dysfunctional marriage, stuck in uncomfortable circumstances, stuck in family conflict, stuck in their relationship to God, stuck in depression, stuck in physical pain, or stuck in disbelief or doubt. I get especially saddened when I hear myself thinking in terms of being stuck, saddened because I know in my heart that we are never really stuck when God is our hope. But hope is not always easy to find or even to hang on to once we have found it.

Several years ago, I was moved by the writings of Mark Buchanan and his two books, Your God Is Too Safe and The Holy Wild.

In the first book, written in 2001, he describes what he calls a border crossing from Kenya to Uganda. It occurs in a small town called Busia. At Busia, you are processed through a small wood hut that is sandwiched between two rows of steel mesh that are topped off with coils of barbed wire. He mentions that offering a few American dollars speeds up the movement from one nation to another considerably.

Leaving the wood hut, you enter a neutral area, approximately two-thirds larger than a football field. Crossing over that area, you enter yet another crude building that processes your entrance into Uganda, which is again hastened with a volunteered donation.

Before moving forward, however, Buchanan paints a picture of what is happening in this area he refers to as Borderland. Borderland is teeming with people, and some of them are finding it safe and comfortable to spend some time there. The land belongs to neither country, so there are no laws there. Whatever happens, good or bad, you are on your own; it is dangerous in a way, but then again, it could be thought of as safe, if you were to consider the potential dangers of each bordering country. A reluctance to leave Borderland is not unthinkable.

In questioning the wisdom of anyone choosing to dwell there, Buchanan asks two questions as he transitions over to the spiritual patterns of believers and others: "Why would anyone choose to stay in Borderland? and Why would anyone choose to stay stuck?"

There are some thoughts people might have in Borderland. We have no desire to abandon the faith that we cling to, but neither do we want to take the risk of kicking the gate open to new dreams, new visions, and new levels of passion and commitment. We are observers. We took the steps to get into this arena of faith, but we are not about to get out on the playing field. We might get injured, hurt or scorned.

We celebrate the wins, but it is always someone else’s win. The trophy of the crown of life that the Apostle Paul speaks of is never handed to us. We thrive on the experiences of others. It is never us, never our victory, and never even our defeat. We have insulated ourselves from that kind of honesty and participation.

Kenya is a wasteland. Uganda is billowing with the smoke of raging battles and new frontiers, new heights of glory, and new achievements. But Uganda is not safe. Better stay right here in Borderland.

Staying safe keeps us in that innocuous and insipid place we are calling Borderland. It is a place where we have fear of the risks, comfort with the familiar, and complacency with faded glory.

Review in your mind the great names who have committed their lives to the advancement of the Kingdom of God. Abraham. Moses. They were willing to