Hopelessness is a violent monster. It attacks with such force and fury and leaves it’s victim as only a shell. I’ve been blessed that, to this point through my recent ordeals, this monster has left my emotional property alone. But in the distance I can see the horizon being filled by his approaching dust. Why now?
The Message from Psalm 42 puts it this way:
I wonder, “Will I ever make it—
arrive and drink in God’s presence?”
I’m on a diet of tears—
tears for breakfast, tears for supper.
I’ve encountered so much in the last few months–much of it I do not even wish to record. I’m forced to wonder when I will be left alone to recover. There are many in this world who have endured so much more than I have, who seem healthy, strong and stable. How can this be? How does one battle the evil of Hopelessness when tragedy strikes, or hurts befall, or death encroaches? Surely it is through the Lord! Surely there is no other God that can save like my God!
So come Lord, because a battle approaches.
Today I have been forced to ask the same question as the psalmist:
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
But I like how The Message puts it:
Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul?
Why are you crying the blues?
Fix my eyes on God—
soon I’ll be praising again.
He puts a smile on my face.
He’s my God.
The day will come–and soon–when I will be praising my God again, and the smile on my face will not be forced or fake. It will be crafted by God himself whose smile alone will cause me to giggle.