Rallying from a momentary bout of overwhelming despair

Some time ago I awoke at 4:52AM like I normally do and the fog I went to bed with remained with me; I couldn’t shake it.  Feeling forlorn and desperate for connection, I cried out in my spirit for God — and there seemed to be no answer.  The disconnection in my soul was so immense that I doubted any vestige of hope could pull me through.

Then a thought occurred to me.  “Come on, let’s go!”  That’s all it was.

For me, it’s generally a thought, yet sometimes it’s an action; simply to get going.

There’s power in stepping forward despite every thought within to want to give it all up.  There’s power in righting our thinking when our feelings will take us nowhere but back further into the doldrums.

But like always when we’re there, down and out, with no vision for hope, when despair is pressing in, and conflicts abound, there’s absolutely no seeing a way out, just as there’s little memory of all our previous conquests.  All our defences are completely down.

Whether it’s betrayal or disappointment or a crushed dream or something else, or worse, a meld of two or three or more seriously competing dilemmas, there’s just such paucity of hope that despair is all we see.  And the only encouragement we have is when we read through these words of someone else that other people feel broken like this too.

Indeed, if our despair teaches us anything, we see it all around us.  Not that it’s in everyone’s life all the time, but it is in many people’s lives occasionally, and in some lives people cannot explain it.  Indeed, most of the time we fail for explaining suffering.

Winston Churchill is famed for saying, “If you’re going through hell, keep going!”  It’s only when we reach the other side that we can look back and say how far hell was to cross.

Rallying from a momentary or even a seasonal bout of overwhelming despair is possible in a moment, and we’re encouraged that the light can break through at any given moment.  And that’s the way it happens as we look back.  Hope is on the horizon.  It revisits us all.  Especially the diligent, who have no role staying in the doldrums or receding.

Hold out for hope and hope will soon arrive.  And even if that ‘soon’ doesn’t feel soon enough, it will soon enough come as you look back.  Hold out for hope.

Photo by Intricate Explorer on Unsplash