The dark depths of despair

I remember many years ago in the early 1970s my wife and I went to Kentucky to visit my sister who was living there at the time. She was in a state of despair because her husband had abandoned her and left her with a little child. My sister’s marriage was over and there was no chance of reconciliation.

She was truly despondent and left alone in Kentucky so far away from her loving family. Her husband wanted her to return to her homeland but my sister was determined not to give up. She would stay there and raise her little child on her own. She eventually moved back to be near her family.

It was at such a time that she started receiving regular visits from a religious organization. Normally this would be a positive experience but their creed did not believe in Jesus Christ being the Son of God and coequal in power and glory as God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I know this may be difficult to understand but it is the creed or the belief we all have as Christians.

I felt the need to challenge this group and to be with my sister during this troublesome time. Not only did she lose her husband and the father of her baby but now she was totally mixed up in her faith.

It proved to be a very difficult time for her living now in the depths of despair at that time.

I remember too what it was like to go deep down into a Kentucky cave and to see the stalactites and stalagmites all lit up with the flood lights.

It was truly an amazing experience except I almost got stuck going down into the depths of the cave. The shaft was very narrow and of course it was a challenge to me as a part of my body wasn’t as narrow as the opening. I felt I was never going to come up again and would spend my life in that cave.

My thoughts ran away with me that day although it was silly on my part to despair because somehow I would get back to the surface.

I have never been in a cave since that early experience.

David the Psalmist recorded his feelings being in a cave in Psalm 142. In verse 4 David cries out: “No one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life.”

I am certain that we all feel like this at times — abandoned, persecuted, left alone and in despair. For David it was a time of grave danger for King Saul, the anointed of God, was seeking to destroy him.

His pain was genuine and no one was there to comfort or to lift his despairing spirit.

However, David knew that the God of all comfort had not abandoned him. David goes on to claim his faith in God during such a time of despair: “When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me.” David wrote these words in a cave where he hid from Saul.

I know what it is like to feel loss and despair but I also know that my God is there to lift my spirits and to give me hope.

When we enter the caves of our lives that try to hem us in and to create despair, we must look to the Saviour, the giver of hope and eternal life and declare that God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble.

You may be reaching for that refuge at this moment with all the experiences you are going through.

You may feel friends have failed you, or that your family have all gone their separate ways and now you are alone and forgotten. Perhaps the phone never rings now and your health keeps the outside world closed from you. Maybe you have just lost your beloved spouse of many years and you feel unprepared for the challenges you must face.

But realize this, that your love for Jesus Christ, deep down in the depths of your heart will see you through and the Son of God will be there for you in your loneliness during the caves of your life that you may have entered.

God has a rescue plan and help is on its way.

David requested that the Lord would set him free from his prison so that he would praise God’s name. The same reassurance is there for each of us. Look to the source, the God of all comfort!

Written by Fred Jeffery, during a recent loss of my very best friend.

“I felt the need to challenge this group and to be with my sister during this troublesome time. Not only did she lose her husband and the father of her baby but now she was totally mixed up in her faith.”