Photo by: Lauren Mitchell
Hopelessness can come from a lot of different directions.
Sometimes an inclination to depressive moods reflects an inherited factor; or changes in our bodies. Feelings of despair can also reflect real or imagined loss, or the lingering trauma of birth, battle, or accident.
Feeling like we have no hope can also reflect the results of personal choices; failures of faith; or a lack of love… that endures forever.
Because any number of causes may be involved, we need to be so careful that we aren’t too quick to beat ourselves up for our failure to be grateful for what we have– especially if we’ve already tried that path.
According to both Old and New Testaments of the Bible, even the most faithful friends of God can experience moments or seasons of hopelessness. No less than the Apostle Paul wrote about being overwhelmed by trouble to the point of despairing even of life itself (2Cor 1:8).
Yes, in that same letter, he also wrote about being “Hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed…perplexed, but not in despair “(2Cor 4:8).
…and yet, by his own admission, he also had moments of despair that felt like death to him.
What we get a chance to see is that, looking back, he later found purpose in those terrible moments. In his words, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.” (vv 9-10)
Seems like this subject that touches so many of us, or those we love, deserves conversation about the dangers of ignoring either physical or spiritual factors in hopelessness…
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