Surrender.
Have you ever experienced a situation in which you have no idea where you are going? I remember several of these in my life, whether small or severe. I had had several times lost while driving (before cell phones or GPS), moments when I thought high school graduation would take forever. At the same time, I did not know if I would be going to college or the seminary. When I then went to the seminary, I thought if I would be called to be a priest or a dad. More recently, while I couldn’t speak well, I could think correctly and was wondering if I would make it back to the full-time priesthood back home after my injury.
Are you in these types of situations now? (Or, if not, recognize when you have been in it before).
Sometimes our physical and spiritual journeys may feel like traveling knee deep in muck, with frustration and cry to God, “How is this happening to me?!”
Here are a few thoughts to encourage you during these challenging places.
Go to God. Pray. If you are so low, feeling like quicksand, and you can’t pray, know that the Holy Spirit will be praying through you. Read Romans 8:26: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words…”!
Focus and pray for someone else as you could pray for someone else, which we call redemptive suffering. Whatever you experience, there is always someone in a worse condition.
After praying, face the circumstance head to head (unless you are the captain of the Titanic), in your thinking and heart to heart to your closest people. Don’t use things like alcohol that merely put a mask over what the real problem is. Keep this process rolling.
Also, as we were taught in the seminary, only make decisions within consolation, meaning times are peaceful, loved, noticing beyond yourself like God, loved ones, virtues, hobbies, etc.—rather than desolation. Desolation is when you do not feel God’s presence, feel lonely or unloved. Know that each of our lives goes up and down like a hiking trip that proceeds in the valley, the plain and the mountain. In these comments, consider with Psalms 23:1-4 brings this to some strength: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake [consolation]. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death [desolation], I fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.”
God does have a plan for you and may His will be done. God does love you more than you can even love yourself. He is in control, and you must surrender your life to God’s arms.
With one last thoughtfulness. You will get through it! Many times you have been through a rough patch and went through it to make you stronger after it. And, if this honestly your last season in life--dying--you can still go forward; and hopefully to heaven!
Know of my prayers for any of you in a dark spot and stay close to our Savior as “God is love.”
God Bless!
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