Finding hope when you’re facing an avalanche of discouragement

There have been times in my life when I’ve sunk without warning into quicksand despair.  As I’ve looked back, I’ve been bearing a huge load, and when my soul knees have buckled, I’ve found myself trounced by the immensity of my world’s heartache.

I don’t bear my counsellees’ struggles typically, other than carrying them with me to God in prayer.  But my own struggles and the struggles of my loved ones weigh me down quicker than I realise.

When I’m there, when I’m waist deep in the quicksand, when all those burdens smother me, I do feel like there’s absolutely no hope.  It could have been the day earlier I was gallantly carrying the load well, balancing it over tricky terrain, negotiating undulations with smiling aplomb.

And suddenly it’s conflict, it’s being misunderstood, it’s a loved one about to give up, it’s the burden of not having enough time to properly do the tasks I need to do, then it’s the weather, the traffic, the littlest bump in the road, tiredness, hunger, noise and other sensual overload, and just a myriad of overwhelm.

How do we find hope in these situations, especially when there’s the triggering of previous trauma to deal with? — things we’re still on the journey trying to handle.

Well, it’s because we’ve been there, and it’s because we’ve gotten through this before — dozens, if not hundreds of times.

Indeed, we still have a perfect record of surviving the temptations to give it all away, not that we’ve always responded perfectly, but then perfection isn’t required.

Good enough is good enough.

The beauty of one day giving in to the next is the following day has its own way.  Succeeding days run to their own rule and they’ll not be dictated to by the previous day.  “There may be tears of an evening, but there is the possibility of joy in the morning,” (Psalm 30:5) and I don’t know about you, but I’ve experienced this fact hundreds of times now.

Just as we carried that load so competently just a short time ago, there will be again that confidence that is now eroded to dust.

As we smile, even through gritted teeth, and imagine just how colossal the burden feels, we think of that distant of confidence — it seems so far off.  But truthfully, it wasn’t long ago it was ours and it won’t be too long before it returns.  Claim this by faith.

Be encouraged by the fact that you’re not alone in feeling alone.  In feeling like life’s so unfair.  In enduring the anxiety that ‘it probably won’t happen’ but being controlled by the fact that might just might.  In this, you’re so very human and utterly normal.

In struggling for the fight to go on, cling to whatever hope there is.  Even as despair fills every nuance of mind, and as your heart panics for the hope that seems to have abandoned you, have peace in facts — hope will return as quickly as it left.

You’ll get through this, just like you got through the last time, but don’t be afraid to rest up and be gentle with yourself.  The last thing we need when life’s tough is self-condemnation.