In this season of discomfort and confusion, mandated face coverings, social distancing and the question, “When in the world will my child go back to school?” it is easy to fall into a state of despair. Do you find yourself from time to time in the “slough of despond” like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress? Or perhaps you feel like Jeremiah who declared, “My strength has perished and so has my hope from the Lord.”
Coronavirus has devastated our comfort and sense of normalcy. Sadness comes over us when we hear of possible re-openings, and then the recommendations change. Corrie Ten Boom said it this way, "Look around and be distressed. Look inside and be depressed. Look at Jesus (our Hope) and be at rest." In what deeply feels to be a dark season in our lives, there is a hope. There is the hope of the gospel. The hope we have goes beyond the assurances of the world. The hope we have is a confident assurance in the person and work of God, through Christ.
I find myself falling into discouraging self-talk during this season, and I have to recall that Christ knows what I am experiencing. He despaired to the point of death and is able to sympathize with my weaknesses. I must continually fix my eyes on Jesus. Some of us are overcome with fear and wonder if we will ever sense the promised hope of God again. Others are deeply grieving the loss of someone they love. We miss the individuals who offer comfort to our souls who can’t personally give a human touch to console us. The loneliness and depression weighs heavily on us.
As John Piper says, “We must fight the fight of faith. We must preach to our soul a sermon of hope…We must set before our own soul the banquet of promises that God has made to us and feed our faith to the full. Then it may be said of us as it was of Stephen and Barnabas: ‘They were filled with faith and with the Holy Spirit.’"