Desperate. What a terrible word. It brings to our minds the picture of strained faces, shouts of despair and tears searching for hope. Ever been desperate? Ever been at the end of your rope .. depending on something or someone else to bring you through?I remember Mary was doing a teaching series about the beatitudes with the aunties in the Children's Home. She came to the part where it says, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness ..." and , as an icebreaker, she asked them all if there had been any time in their lives when they had been desperate to eat but there was no food in their homes to cook. She was shocked with their answer. Every one of them had faced hunger at certain times in their lives. They had known what it was to go without food. Mary & I cried as we realised the blessed and comfortable lives that we have had ... we have never been to the point of real hunger.
This week, the Province of Isabela has been placed under a state of calamity. We are in desperate trouble. Most of the Philippines has been blessed with an abundance of rain, but here in the middle of the Cagayan Valley the rain has not arrived. The rain season is already 2 months late. Billions of Pesos worth of corn harvests have been destroyed and, if the rain does not come in the next two weeks all the rice fields will also be completely destroyed. The Magat Dam, which provides irrigation for all the rice fields in the province, is at a 7-year low. Please pray for us.
People here are desperate. Farmers are really desperate. Here is a latest report in the Philippine Star yesterday:
"The water level of Magat Dam in this province remains critical and Cagayan Valley farmers continue to pray for more rains to offset the effects of the two-month dry spell, which almost dried up the region’s farmlands, especially in the southern parts where the bulk of rice and corn production comes from.
“We pray for more rains to rescue us from this crisis. The recent rains were not enough to relieve our heavily dried-up farmlands,” said Mang Fortunato, a farmer in the Mallig region.
The drought placed Cagayan Valley, which lost nearly a billion of pesos in damaged crops, including fishery products, under a state of calamity."
Strange. This week in Manila there is a typhoon with so much rain that it caused flash floods. People left their cars parked on the road because the rain was so heavy and the water levels were so high. Yet, just 200 miles away, people are desperate for even a fraction of this rainfall.
Really got me thinking about the whole area of 'desperation'. I have been trying to think of times in my life when I have been desperate. Or times in my life when I have encountered desperation. Here are some instances that I can remember:
* In Africa, there was also a drought when I was there in 1998. The electricity was off for 3 days at a time and the rains had not come. Terrible.
* The Hillsborough disaster. Desperate faces crushed against an immovable barrier.
* I remember a fisherman fell down between the boat and the pier one cold frosty night. The desperation of his fellow crewmen to save him was incredible.
* I remember how desperate me, my family and my extended family were to see my cousin come through a terrible car crash.
* September 11 2001.
* I remember a small boy fell down a well in Italy and I can still remember seeing the desperation on the faces or the rescuers as they tried to pull him up.
* I have sat in a car with a little boy dying in the back seat, miles and miles from help on a dangerous road. I remember Winston and myself crying out to God, "Don't let Pepito die." Desperate to find a Doctor or a hospital.
* A year after we came to the Philippines many Christians went to a Joyce Meyers Conference in Manila and were put up in hotels. One hotel - The Manor Hotel - caught fire and the people could not escape because of steel bars across their windows. The Fire Brigade had no cutting equipment. Desperation on those inside to get out and the desperation of the people outside to rescue them. Terrible. Over 50 believers died ... live on TV.
* I remember being in France on a beach with thousands of people. One of the guys in our group lost his little girl in the middle of this mass of humanity. I remember his desperation as he paced the beach crying her name.
And there is more. I suppose that desperation is not something we face on a regular basis ... but when it comes it changes our lives, our perspectives and our future. On reflection, maybe there are three sources or reasons for desperation:
1. Because of Someone We Love
Every one of us has paced hospital wards, hoping and praying that someone we love will recover or be restored from illness. I remember when Josiah had extreme Pneumonia and the doctors tried every anti-biotic and he would not respond. The Doctor told us, "If Josiah does not respond to this last anti-biotic be prepared for the worst." Imagine. We were so far from the comfort of family and friends. Desperation. Emotional torment. Deep prayers to our father.
Our love for people is the greatest reason for desperation. When those whom we love suffer, or are ill, or are hurt ... we take desperate measures. We re-mortgage our homes, we offer our own vital organs, we organise support groups, we arrange special prayer meetings, we give everything we possibly can.
2. Because of a Need that We Have
We all have deep needs at some points in our lives. Some people would do anything to look more beautiful, become richer, be famous, live a certain lifestyle, to be accepted, to be noticed. Some people become addicted to substances such as alcohol and drugs ... and they will stop at nothing to get the money to feed their habit. They become desperate people who will steal from their own family for another high.
3. Because of a Passion that Consumes Us
Many people develop a passion that becomes the central point of their lives. I remember watching a documentary about Maradonna, the great footballer. Remember him as a 11 year old boy doing those keepie-ups for hours on end. In the documentary, even as a small boy, he said that every night he sleeps with the ball in his bed! he was desperate to become a great footballer ... and he did. (who can forgot that amazing goal he scored against England in '86! And in the same match he scored another one where he beat the whole English team!!!)
Businessmen are passionate about their profits, sportsmen are passionate about reaching a certain goal, salesmen become passionate about targets, fishermen become desperate about catching the most, Pastors become passionate about big churches, ... and sometimes, in the process, we get desperate. Sometimes we cut corners. Sometimes we make the wrong choices. Sometimes we listen to the wrong people.
Sometimes our passion drives us past the state of desperation. Who can forget the British sprinter Derek Redmond get up from a terrible fall in the Olympics and limp the last 300m to the finish line? what is our dream? Our passion? Our desires? These are the things that will drive us to desperation,and further.
Desperation will cause us to do things we have never done before. Desperation illuminates the real you. Desperation ignores dignity. Desperation must be seen and heard. Desperation swells emotions we did not know we had. Desperation doesn't care what other people think. Desperation eliminates the trivial and focuses on a positive outcome. Desperation pulls away the seemingly important and elevates the absolute essentials.
Get my drift? Desperate people change the world. Desperate people cannot be stopped. Desperate people are people who will not take no for an answer. They will fight, cry and believe until there is an answer or a conclusion.
Abraham was desperate to follow God ... wherever; David was desperate for the heart of God; Moses was desperate for the presence of God; Daniel was desperate for his relationship with God; Enoch was desperate for God Himself; the early church were desperate for the kingdom of God to be extended; the apostles were desperate for God to stretch forth his hand with signs, wonders, healing and salvation; ... the Early church fathers, the martyrs, the Covenanters, John Wesley, DL Moody, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, William Booth, Smith Wiggleworth, Billy Graham ... all desperate people desperately living for their generation.
I read a book by Reinhard Bonkke called 'Passion for Souls" that deeply challenged me. Bonkke is a man desperate for Africa to turn to Christ. Cut him in half and every part of him will cry out "Africa will be saved". Heidi Baker .. passionate about the lives of thousands of orphans. Desperate for Mozambique to be touched by the power of God.
Mark Ritchie? I need to become more desperate. More desperate for God Himself. For His presence. For His power. For His anointing. I am not satisfied with who I am at this point of my life. There is so much more. I know, deep in my heart, that there is another dimension that God wants for my life ... and without desperation I will never see it. I need to know again what it is to groan. To weep. To be broken. To pray for souls to be won for Christ. For a deeper walk with the Lord. I know that in the busyness of ministry and life ... I have lost something of who I am, or was, in God. Now, I want it back. Desperately.
You? How about you, my friend. Are you desperate? Maybe it is time, like me, to check our 'desperation level'. In the same way as we are desperate for physical rain here in Isabela ... may our lives cry out for spiritual rain that will touch our lives and the overflow will touch the world around us.
Become desperate.
Selah ...
Strange. This week in Manila there is a typhoon with so much rain that it caused flash floods. People left their cars parked on the road because the rain was so heavy and the water levels were so high. Yet, just 200 miles away, people are desperate for even a fraction of this rainfall.
Really got me thinking about the whole area of 'desperation'. I have been trying to think of times in my life when I have been desperate. Or times in my life when I have encountered desperation. Here are some instances that I can remember:
* In Africa, there was also a drought when I was there in 1998. The electricity was off for 3 days at a time and the rains had not come. Terrible.
* The Hillsborough disaster. Desperate faces crushed against an immovable barrier.
* I remember a fisherman fell down between the boat and the pier one cold frosty night. The desperation of his fellow crewmen to save him was incredible.
* I remember how desperate me, my family and my extended family were to see my cousin come through a terrible car crash.
* September 11 2001.
* I remember a small boy fell down a well in Italy and I can still remember seeing the desperation on the faces or the rescuers as they tried to pull him up.
* I have sat in a car with a little boy dying in the back seat, miles and miles from help on a dangerous road. I remember Winston and myself crying out to God, "Don't let Pepito die." Desperate to find a Doctor or a hospital.
* A year after we came to the Philippines many Christians went to a Joyce Meyers Conference in Manila and were put up in hotels. One hotel - The Manor Hotel - caught fire and the people could not escape because of steel bars across their windows. The Fire Brigade had no cutting equipment. Desperation on those inside to get out and the desperation of the people outside to rescue them. Terrible. Over 50 believers died ... live on TV.
* I remember being in France on a beach with thousands of people. One of the guys in our group lost his little girl in the middle of this mass of humanity. I remember his desperation as he paced the beach crying her name.
And there is more. I suppose that desperation is not something we face on a regular basis ... but when it comes it changes our lives, our perspectives and our future. On reflection, maybe there are three sources or reasons for desperation:
1. Because of Someone We Love
Every one of us has paced hospital wards, hoping and praying that someone we love will recover or be restored from illness. I remember when Josiah had extreme Pneumonia and the doctors tried every anti-biotic and he would not respond. The Doctor told us, "If Josiah does not respond to this last anti-biotic be prepared for the worst." Imagine. We were so far from the comfort of family and friends. Desperation. Emotional torment. Deep prayers to our father.
Our love for people is the greatest reason for desperation. When those whom we love suffer, or are ill, or are hurt ... we take desperate measures. We re-mortgage our homes, we offer our own vital organs, we organise support groups, we arrange special prayer meetings, we give everything we possibly can.
2. Because of a Need that We Have
We all have deep needs at some points in our lives. Some people would do anything to look more beautiful, become richer, be famous, live a certain lifestyle, to be accepted, to be noticed. Some people become addicted to substances such as alcohol and drugs ... and they will stop at nothing to get the money to feed their habit. They become desperate people who will steal from their own family for another high.
3. Because of a Passion that Consumes Us
Many people develop a passion that becomes the central point of their lives. I remember watching a documentary about Maradonna, the great footballer. Remember him as a 11 year old boy doing those keepie-ups for hours on end. In the documentary, even as a small boy, he said that every night he sleeps with the ball in his bed! he was desperate to become a great footballer ... and he did. (who can forgot that amazing goal he scored against England in '86! And in the same match he scored another one where he beat the whole English team!!!)Businessmen are passionate about their profits, sportsmen are passionate about reaching a certain goal, salesmen become passionate about targets, fishermen become desperate about catching the most, Pastors become passionate about big churches, ... and sometimes, in the process, we get desperate. Sometimes we cut corners. Sometimes we make the wrong choices. Sometimes we listen to the wrong people.
Sometimes our passion drives us past the state of desperation. Who can forget the British sprinter Derek Redmond get up from a terrible fall in the Olympics and limp the last 300m to the finish line? what is our dream? Our passion? Our desires? These are the things that will drive us to desperation,and further.
Desperation will cause us to do things we have never done before. Desperation illuminates the real you. Desperation ignores dignity. Desperation must be seen and heard. Desperation swells emotions we did not know we had. Desperation doesn't care what other people think. Desperation eliminates the trivial and focuses on a positive outcome. Desperation pulls away the seemingly important and elevates the absolute essentials.
Get my drift? Desperate people change the world. Desperate people cannot be stopped. Desperate people are people who will not take no for an answer. They will fight, cry and believe until there is an answer or a conclusion.
Abraham was desperate to follow God ... wherever; David was desperate for the heart of God; Moses was desperate for the presence of God; Daniel was desperate for his relationship with God; Enoch was desperate for God Himself; the early church were desperate for the kingdom of God to be extended; the apostles were desperate for God to stretch forth his hand with signs, wonders, healing and salvation; ... the Early church fathers, the martyrs, the Covenanters, John Wesley, DL Moody, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, William Booth, Smith Wiggleworth, Billy Graham ... all desperate people desperately living for their generation.
I read a book by Reinhard Bonkke called 'Passion for Souls" that deeply challenged me. Bonkke is a man desperate for Africa to turn to Christ. Cut him in half and every part of him will cry out "Africa will be saved". Heidi Baker .. passionate about the lives of thousands of orphans. Desperate for Mozambique to be touched by the power of God.
Mark Ritchie? I need to become more desperate. More desperate for God Himself. For His presence. For His power. For His anointing. I am not satisfied with who I am at this point of my life. There is so much more. I know, deep in my heart, that there is another dimension that God wants for my life ... and without desperation I will never see it. I need to know again what it is to groan. To weep. To be broken. To pray for souls to be won for Christ. For a deeper walk with the Lord. I know that in the busyness of ministry and life ... I have lost something of who I am, or was, in God. Now, I want it back. Desperately.
You? How about you, my friend. Are you desperate? Maybe it is time, like me, to check our 'desperation level'. In the same way as we are desperate for physical rain here in Isabela ... may our lives cry out for spiritual rain that will touch our lives and the overflow will touch the world around us.
Become desperate.
Selah ...
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