Here’s the thing: I’ve written a couple of times about the beauty that can come out of hard times, the beauty in the mess, and the importance of leaning into people. Each time, though, I’ve walked away praying that it hasn’t hit someone at their darkest. I want to acknowledge that it’s not that simple.
Because in your darkest, when you’re in the pit…you feel nothing but alone…and hope seems reserved for those that can’t be going through the crap you’re going through.
Telling someone to “hang on and hold on – just have hope!” – when they are in their darkest hour, or darkest years…it’s not going to work. Hope can’t be forced. You can’t work yourself into hope.
In your darkest, hope comes…but it makes no sense.
Insert cliché here…
Hope is the substance of things unseen.
- When your husband has an incurable disease,
- When you can’t find a spouse after years of praying,
- When you are losing your home and everything you hold dear due to circumstances out of your control,
- When you’ve lost your child,
- When wave after wave of life’s worst keeps getting thrown at you and you can’t possibly keep your head above the water one more minute,
That’s when hope will break in. And it doesn’t make any sense.
Skye Jethani writes: “There is a sorrow words cannot express and no embrace can remove. It abides deep within and is accessible only to the one carries it.” In those moments, in those dark nights of your soul, you can’t work yourself into hope or tell someone they must hope.
Instead, hope just comes.
Hope is a powerful. Hope saves. This is a broken, messed up world. Hope is a longing and faith in something we cannot see, but we know deep in our souls it simply must be…it is the only thing that will satisfy or bring any measure of comfort.
“In your lonliness and sorrow that nothing in the world seems capable of reaching, you can cry out to God and He, and His presence, will be your comfort.” In that moment, alone, crying out, you will be met with hope, and the strength to take the next step.
The problem with hope is that it comes when it doesn’t make sense, and when you can see no way to get to it on your own.
But hope comes.
Hope will come.
For anyone that faces this Easter, the celebration of Hope Alive, with pain and sorrow and a loneliness that only you can carry…if you are living your own Good Friday of total defeat…cry out to the One who gets it. You will be met with His comfort, and hope will come…even when there’s no reason for it. Sunday is coming.
Stop on by to read Sarah’s blog. Sarah is a gifted writer with beautiful insights…you won’t be disappointed!
a sojourner's truth 