Turning the Painful Corner

“If you’re at the end of your rope... untie the knot in your heart.”

—Cooper Edens

Desperation inevitably leads to frustration. But when we are sick and tired of being sick and tired, we are ready to turn in a new direction. Having banged our heads against the wall for long enough, our metaphorical foreheads bruised and bloodied, we turn away from the wall and face our lives afresh.

Insight to turn the corner comes when we have reached the pinnacle of our pain.

It’s almost as if God had to bring us to this point—to the absolute end of ourselves—before he could convince us his way is best. Now that we accept God’s way is the best way we add our passion to the Divine will and begin trudging the long and happier road to our destiny.

How long is the rope?

Getting to the end of our grief is not easy. We only realise we have done all our grieving in hindsight—having reached acceptance. And though some grieving lasts and lasts, where only fleeting senses of acceptance are possible, most of life is about continuing to adjust and moving on.

When life has become like a length of rope, and we have been distracted from our previous purpose, because some painful interruption has occurred, we begin to wonder where and when the end will appear.

But God is using these times to refine us, in patience.

As we continue to pull on the rope, which is the metaphor for the season of life where ongoing pain exists, the best thing we can do is continue to pull, faithfully, until the end of the rope appears. This is a searching for the insight with which to turn the corner.

Taking the Corner When It Appears

It’s possible that the only thing that remains to be done as the end of the rope appears is to untie our stubborn hearts. Where frustration exists we learn to let go.

Turning the corner itself is probably a simple process, but it’s taken us long enough to get here.

Of course, we have to be careful it’s the right corner we take. Sometimes our frustration ‘forces’ us over the edge into a route we will inevitably regret; our lack of patience has misinterpreted what appears to be the end of the rope.

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All bad and painful seasons come to a close. When the new light dawns, and we’re ready to take that new step, we’re encouraged to be ready to step into what’s coming.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.