Have you ever come to the very end? The end of options, the end of hope, the end of the road. I am talking about that long weary road you’ve been traveling for a very long time. No one knows about it, only you. That road in your mind and in your experience, that leaves no opening, no future, only sorrow and regret. The road where the walls are starting to close in and there’s no place to turn. And your very being, the core of who you are starts to crack. The hope you’ve carried with you all this time starts to fade, the clouds gather and there appears to be no way out, nowhere to go from here, life is a dead end. In this struggle your thought is, its time to die. My life is over. The pain you’ve been carrying for so long is getting heavier and heavier, the optimism you tried to cling to grows faint, and there’s no reason to believe life is ever going to be any better than at this moment, but worse, far worse. The ending you dreaded is here, you must face it. There is no denying it any longer. Hope fades, life dims. What now?
We are not allowed to check out of this pain, unless we break the rules and take what doesn’t belong to us. But the thought comes, in desperation it comes. As it appears to be the only answer, the only hope in hopelessness. When death is the only hope, you are at the end. Life is unbearable and excruciating. Death looks hopeful, as it is unknown what the experience will be yet there is the possibility that it will be better than life. Life is known and life hurts. Oh how it hurts and feels awful. The soul yearns and longs for release. Learned helplessness, learned defeat, is the origin of such pain. The belief, the bravery it takes to imagine extracting oneself out of such a dismal place grows dimmer with each passing day, and each sequence of failure. Something shuts down, something closes our vision to a new and better life. It doesn’t happen, the win we longed for escapes us and we are trapped in a maze of despair.
There is a place to run when this fate has gripped us. Yes there is a person who knows and cares. A person who knows the depth of our despair and wants to reach down and lift us up, give us hope. He is the only one in such times who can. He made us, the creator, and He has been with us through this journey every step of the way. He alone understands how we got to this place and what we need to get us out. Wisdom is His name and His understanding is inscrutable. His mercy reaches down to our lowest point of pain and his love touches our hearts. There is hope for the one who will turn to Him. He is real, He is here and waiting to comfort and console the brokenhearted.
You may feel like its too late, you are too far gone in this wayward tunnel of one chaotic failure after another, one destructive loss or anguish of sorrow after another. Yet, your heart still beats, your lungs bear oxygen and He is not finished with you yet dear friend. No not yet. He alone will write the last chapter in your life.
He decides when life is over, and you are finished. He holds the keys to life and death, and He controls your fate. We don’t know what time it is, …but He does. He knows our days, and times, and what we must learn and what we need. Are you in the crucible of God? He is the refiner of silver and gold. He knows His work. He is our God, and He has not failed us, nor forsaken us. His hand of mercy is ever extended to our broken heart, but will we take it, take his loving hand in ours?
Its not over, and life goes on, and God still loves us, and He’s still on the throne. This is a low time in life , perhaps the lowest hardest time you’ve ever experienced. But there is a God in heaven who loves you, who sees you and wants to help.you. He moves the chess pieces, and though He seems silent He is intricately involved in all that we hope and fear. He waits. He longs for our prayer, our cry for help. We may have cried many times and heard nothing, yet He hears, He listens, He acts on our behalf. Angels may be the only ones who know the magnitude of his actions towards us as we cry out to Him. Someday we may know, and it may be one of the greatest demonstrations of His love ever revealed to us.
The God of whom I speak is the God of creation, Jesus Christ. The God who exists in eternal everlasting light, the God of heaven. He knows of your sorrows, he too was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. He gave His life, for a world He created that rejected Him when He came to save them. He came to give His life a ransome for many, and He was the only one who could pay the debt we owed. Why? He was perfect. He was sinless. His blood was shed to atone for the sins of the whole world. This was His mission in coming, to pay our sin debt with His blood, the required payment according to scripture. In His death, burial, and resurrection He made the way open to forgiveness and eternal life for all those who believe. He freely bestows this gift on all who call upon His name, who hope in His mercy.
Life may feel like its over, sorrows mount and griefs bear us down, but God! God the Son, Jesus Christ is our everlasting comfort. In His presence is fullness of joy. Believe on Him, hope in Him, He will save you from this world of sorrows.
“They looked unto Him and were radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” ~ Psalm 34
Sarah Hopkins Art 