Lettuce

             Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:23)

Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.

At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. (I Kings 18:26-29)

 

This is one of the salad verses in Hebrews: Lettuce! It’s also both an individual and a group verse. Not only do you and I need to hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, but the Church needs to, too. The NIV says “hold unswervingly.” The KJV says “have patience.” And this is a big problem for us in many areas, especially hope or faith.

My current story brought to mind the idea of liquid or Dutch courage, both of which actually refer to “courage” that is the result of intoxication. There’s another sort of courage or hope to which the second passage above seems to refer. It is either a “frenzy” courage or a mass-psychology courage. The individual or group gets all excited for a comparatively short time. It can be a positive excitement or a negative excitement, but excitement can only last for so long. In that, it’s like (or may be) an adrenaline surge.

We see this at pep rallies, political rallies, conferences, and new years, at which people make big promises, and rarely carry them out. This is not what God wants us to be like. He wants our courage and our hope to last not only through the passage of time, but through hardship. And the basis of our faith isn’t our emotions. It’s God’s faithfulness.