This is the time to relinquish the dream. This is the time to admit failure. This is the place where hope changes its dream and the dream alters its hope.
Call it over, settle down, turn in the hope that you will ever change – that you will ever become a calm, quiet person of wisdom having proven yourself credible by being able to control your emotions and behavior.
Give it up. You’re exactly what you are: pathetic, a bit crazy, very probably unstable.
Stop pretending. You’re such an idiot. You’ve proven it. Sit down, shut up, and keep your mouth shut. Show up on Sunday at church and smile your stupid, senseless smile. You’re a silly old fool! Forget it all. It’s over, you’re done. And, you did it to yourself.
Have you heard words like these? Who would speak to a person in such cruel and harsh and hateful words? Condemnation is so heavy, so hard; and it can descend upon a person like a blanket of shame.
A desire to flee - - to run - - to move - - to try to start over somehow, some way in some other place….Give up – or, begin again? Another do-over… is that even possible?
Could this just be another mile-marker on the road of life? An opportunity – a place to accept reality and begin again. There is always hope?
You’re not where you wanted to be, not what you’d hoped to be by this time, not yet spiritually mature, complete and lacking in nothing. But, life is far from over, and there is always hope.
Absolutely, YES! There is always hope because Jesus Christ is the same: yesterday, today, and forever! {Hebrews 13:8.}
Life is an unfolding process, full of changes. Life brings love; and love, much like roses, often comes with thorns, the pains of life.
No matter what happens in life, never, ever give up! Please read James 1:12 in your Bible.
To quietly resign from life, whether you do that formally and publicly, or quietly in the privacy of your own mind, would be like committing spiritual suicide.
No matter how hard life might seem to be or how little others might seem to understand your emotional anguish, no one ever has to surrender in defeat to life and give up.
Recently I read these words from one of my old journals:
“What a messy thing you sometimes are, life! You can beat the living daylights out of a person and whip them down to a near senseless thing with the pain and emotional anguish! And, you do it in such a way that one just keeps quiet and privately bears the confused, helpless, bewildered anger at the injustice of it all!”
Some trials of life leave us feeling as though we’ve been symbolically dragged down the highway while clinging to the closed door of a speeding vehicle. We know we should turn loose of the thing but the hurt of being left behind seems to hurt more than any cuts, bruises, and gashes from having layers of skin pulled off our limbs as we desperately hold on for dear life.
Until that last moment when we realize life is moving on and we must let it. We sometimes have to turn loose of some of the things we thought we wanted most in life.
It is the pain that can’t be explained to another person. And, sometimes we just so desperately need someone to hear our silent pain and say they understand. We long to be known and understood in our innermost hearts.
There is One who understands because He birthed us: “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth,…” {James 1:18}. He knows the things we say and the things we only think in our minds and feel in our hearts. He knows our grief and He hurts with us. In all our distresses, He is distressed, too.
Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world and He rose again for the benefit of all who would make that intentional choice to believe in Him. Just simply believe that God is God and Jesus Christ is the sacrificial Son given for the sins of the world. We turn in genuine repentance from the sin of which each of us are guilty and confess our sins to Him, receiving His righteousness which He gives to us.
There is nothing automatic about salvation any more than there is anything automatic about life, secular life or the Christian life.*
Day to day living can be hard and we can be hard-pressed to live it victoriously in this sin-sick fallen world. But, victory belongs to the one who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior and Lord. Please read 1 Corinthians 15, especially verse 57, in your Bible.
Even Jesus did not escape this world without a crown of thorns. He willingly wore the crown of thorns that we might receive the crown of life. Please read James 1:12 in your Bible.
Jesus, who experienced all the pain and sorrow and suffering that life in its fallen form holds and metes out without any exceptions, knew pain intimately. He wept. He agonized in prayer.
“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 5:7-10 (NIV 1984.).
Jesus: a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Please read in your Bible Isaiah 53:1-12.
He knows your sorrow and He knows my sorrow – and beyond. Amazing how many parallels I can draw from His sinless life and my sinful life.
He experienced the ultimate pain of the penalty of sin though He never sinned. I sinned and yet escaped the ultimate penalty of sin simply because He took my place, extended to me the grace which bought my deliverance from sin’s ultimate wage: eternal death. {See 2 Corinthians 5:21}. And, not only that, He gave me eternal life in His eternal life: both of us pain-free for eternity.
Amazing and sovereign God! God is Love and Jesus Christ is Abundant Life! Jesus Christ, the dear Son of God: what a Savior!
“I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which He is to be praised, according to all the LORD has done for us—yes, the many good things He has done for the house of Israel, according to His compassion and many kindnesses. He said, ‘Surely they are My people, sons [and daughters] who will not be false to Me’; and so He became their Savior. In all their distress, He too was distressed, and the angel of His presence saved them. In His love and mercy He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” {Isaiah 63:7-9 (NIV 1984).}
In the words of Dr. Charles F. Stanley, “So, the next time you’re feeling the need to be better understood, turn to the One who understands you perfectly. Even more importantly, ask Him to help you know Him better.” “… Be a living message of hope to those around you today.”
* If you are not absolutely certain that you are in the life-changing relationship Jesus Christ died to provide for you, or if you have any questions about the certainty of your salvation experience, please seek guidance from a pastor or Sunday School teacher or another Christian.
If you would like to contact me for more resources, please do so by leaving a comment to this post, or send an email to me at samreanne@gmail.com.
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