Hope Through Struggles We Share

FINANCIAL PROBLEMS and pressure from a realtor, concern over a lack of work, and a recent suicide in the family; this guy had it all—all of the wrong sort of things happening in his life and in his family’s life.

His was a brave face, and, though he chose to have fun with his friends instead of wallow in it, he was ever brave enough to share. It’s not as if he couldn’t share; just like on Palm Sunday, if there was no praise for the coming Saviour in the streets the stones would have cried out

The hope we need through our pain, struggles and torment comes via the diffusion of our carrying that terrible load. We must pass it off; we cannot bear such a load without buckling at the knees.

It’s good, then, that pain forces us to seek God.

But if we deny it, God won’t be upset. A foolish decision (we’ve all made them) helps us to know that none of us have all of life.

Now this sharing or diffusion of the horrendous load—the concerns, anxieties and tremors—is not a miraculous healing in its own right. Best we not expect too much. But the miracle occurs steadily over time. As we connect more and more, more and more does that horrible foretaste of despair begin to make its way into the background of our psyche.

Cooperating with God

God hasn’t been the one to have placed us in our lamentable situation, but the Lord does cry out into it. He wants us saved and has power that is mighty to save, but we must cooperate and do his will.

This is not done by trying harder. It’s done by surrendering to his will. Surrendering is easier than we think. It always looks hard initially. But it is, in fact, easy from the standpoint of looking back.

Cooperating with God needs to become our habit; how we more or less operate.

When we do this there is a blessing associated; we are helped and we don’t feel so alone.

Now how we surrender in these ways is we share our burdens. We let go of them, and release them into the arms of a responsible and caring person—one who will hold us through it all; one that won’t give up on us. Seek that person. Also seek that in the Person of God—who never gives up.

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Sharing our burdens is a key to emotional and psychological recovery. We find someone we can trust and share with openness and courage. The healing happens not overnight—not entirely—but the habit of sharing when we need to is blessed, because we cooperate with God by surrendering the struggles we cannot contain.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.