To and From There

When you see someone going there where you have been, wanting to help them as they go there is a natural response.  The problem is that most of our journeys to there have to be walked alone.  There is usually a place no one really wants to go, but a place to which we inevitably must all go.  When we have been there and gone beyond it, we are often aware of our friends who are steadily moving toward that unseen abyss which will suddenly throw them into a world they have never walked, but despite our intentions, there is nothing we can do except pray for them as they move into that place of darkness they never would have chosen.   

When we get to those places where loss and despair and darkness seem to be running rampant, and we all do, we feel swept away from every reality we have always known.  All the constants are wiped away except for the constant which never changes despite the circumstances and that is the presence of God (Hebrews 13:8).  The truth is that it is common to wonder if He is still present with us in those moments.  We often find ourselves entering into a moment which causes us to know kinship with the words which Jesus uttered from the cross when He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).  To feel such coming forth from within us does not mean that we have lost or abandoned our faith in God, it simply means we are who we are.  We are a suffering soul broken by loss and feeling separated from all that gives life its meaning and purpose.  

What must be remembered is that the Jesus who uttered these words of deep despair is the same one who was raised from the empty tomb to new life.  God will do for us what He did for Jesus.  He will raise us up to become someone new.  Someone who never existed before will come forth from the darkness and the new someone, though slow in coming into being, will bear the light of life in a way never before seen.  God never leaves or forsakes us.  He will always be there with us and from there He will take us to know life once again.