.: never beyond His hand :.

I think we all have experienced moments of incredible despair. We all have faced situations in which we feel completely desolated. We have felt abandoned by anything and anyone that might offer even a glimmer of hope. There has been that one thing that suddenly left us feeling trapped, and the only way to get free was to do something to solve the whole puzzle. And is it even reasonable for us to expect even one other soul to see or feel that thing that no one else seems to? Though this body is a temple, something it can feel like nothing less than a prison cell, with this earthly life presenting itself as a life sentence. If we are honest with ourselves, to even say a word to anyone else only leaves that friend or family member feeling like their hands are tied. Are we not the ones that are to have some sort of eternal hope? Yet so often it rings hollow when confronted by a soul that feel desperate to find any certain reason for living. We can call it foolish thinking. We can condemn it as a lack of common sense. We can even expose their self-centered thinking for what it truly is. But when that fellow soul is asking for an explanation, and when they are confronted by deeply rooted pain, all we can do is weep with them at any and every level possible.

We must realize that the hope in our own life makes all the sense in the world to us, but there is something keeping them from embracing it in like manner. Below the surface of it all is a lie, or even a whole series of them, that they have been convinced of. These lies are the ones that cheapen true meaning and genuine expectations. They tell the soul that delight is found only in the passions that we believe to be the highest. They drive the soul beyond its means, only to rebuke it when it finally gives out and gives up. What I am suggesting is that we have all been there. So how does one soul that bears the scars of hopelessness from years past speak to another soul whose path has led them into similar despair? What words or images do we use to open their eyes to the world that is truly alive all around them? How do we carry their burdens for the time being, until they can recapture their wits and senses and continue on as they were before?

There are situations that absolutely strip people of any and every cause for continuing on. It begs them to throw their arms up and admit defeat, only the kind of defeat that it suggests is one in which you never recover. The Enemy steps in and captures our hearts through humiliation and shame, giving the terms by which we might internally crucify ourselves. We would not even stand a chance against His agenda were it up to us alone. But on the other side of experiencing such realities is the certainty that we were never created to hold the life of another individual in the palm of our hands. Our will, as earnest and passionate as it may be, is divorced from the decisions of everyone around us. We can point the way. And try as we might, we can attempt to drag that other person. But we cannot force another human soul to go where they have no desire to be led. If they choose to not see, we cannot make them see.

Yet this is the very issue that weighs me down, for so often a person's inability to see does not derive internally. Sometimes they are not ready to embrace the truth, for something has defiled their perspective and they do not see things as they truly are (though so often things are not only as they might appear). So what is the word that we might extend to them, beyond a word of life? We were fashioned for the sort of life that is worth living, one that reaches beyond itself and is built up amidst deep fellowship. We need each other if we intend to complete the journey that remains before us. We need people that will pry below the surface and not settle for patterned responses when the situation calls for it. We need souls that care enough to dig deeper and not refuse to follow-up even the faintest cry for help. We do not need to be fully understood, but we do need to feel loved and be given the chance to love in return. The Enemy would have us to be so clouded by our own hurt and resentment that we cannot partner with that person next to us. But we cannot give up offering the hope that has carried us thus far; the hope of a world that will one day be renewed, as well as our own hearts and lives. This pain that we now feel is only temporary. Yet no matter how deeply it roots itself, it will never reach beyond the caring and curing hand of our Father, who allows all things for our maturity and confidence.