WHEN LIFE HURTS: Where do we go from here?
Life can wear us
down and at times we feel we have no place to turn. We ask, where do we go from
here? Life can be so hard that we wish we never existed. We wish our problems
would dissipate. We wish our troubles would evaporate. We cry for our struggles
to go away, anywhere, just away from here. At times we created those problems
ourselves and we are so downcast because we have not forgiven ourselves. We can’t
turn back the hands of time so we beat ourselves up hoping the guilt will be
assuaged. But it only mutates into deeper problems. Because even after we beat
ourselves silly, we get no new resolve. We feel like we can’t go on another
day. We want to give up. We want to throw in the towel but deep down we know it
will not make us feel better. So we sleep. We hope we will awake and find that
it was just a dream. So, we get entangled in the deceptions of this world. We
succumb to the dark side’s push. We grab the alcohol bottle. We run to sexual
gratification. We run to our addictions. We succumb to our self-pity. We bow down
to the pressure of negative friendships. We get temporal thrills and in the
moment it feels good, but only the few seconds of it. In the ride it feels
great. We wish the thrill could run forever. But the adrenaline is short. The
pleasure is short lived and we return to our life of chaos, frustrations,
fears, failures, insecurities, weaknesses, threats, sicknesses, hopelessness
and crying ourselves to sleep at night when nobody can see that we are not as
strong as we seem to be. The morning dawns and we repeat the cycle. We put up
happy faces, plastic smiles and, clean shirts and broken hearts. We run through
the same script. We assume the same roles and no matter how many times we’ve
staged it, the tragedy of life seems inevitable. Life’s not a comedy. Life’s a
parody of what we would have been if we had what we wanted. But what we wanted
killed us. What we wanted isn’t what we needed. And now we have reached the
brink of no return.
Where do we go
from here?
Many never knew
the answer to that. Suicide was their option. You stand at the same crossroads
of frustration. Where do you go from here? You don’t want to answer that
because you’re afraid of making a move. You know the rancour of regret. It
tastes as bitter as gall and it chokes ambition. It poisons hope and it blinds
opportunity. You remember that the choices you made boomeranged in your face
and you got hurt or life simply happened and you were in the way; you got hurt.
You swore to never venture into chance.
You promised to never be a fool twice. You decided to never make a move. You’re
now at a stalemate with life and the chessboard is gathering dust. The black
and the white of the chessboard are both soiled with the wait and now, more
than ever you’re confused about your move. Did it leave you standing in black
or white?
Where do you go from here?
I’ll tell you
where you go. You go to the cross. At the cross, at the cross where I first saw
the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day. It’s at the cross that you
find rest. It’s at the cross where you find relief. It’s in Him with arms
spread wide that you find your healing despite your feelings. It’s at the cross
where he restores broken hearts. It’s at the cross that whether you feel you’ve
messed up for bad he shows you One cross Two thieves Three Nails FORGIVEN. At
the cross you stand forgiven. It’s at the cross where he calls your choices
“experiences” and your troubles “opportunities”. It’s at the cross that the
world will call your stories “adventures” and your decisions “examples”. It’s
at the cross where you become a new creation. The old is gone; the new has
come. It’s at the cross that you learn not to mortgage your soul to rent cheap
pleasures. It’s at the cross that the weary are strengthened. It’s at the cross
that the sick are healed. It’s at the cross that the fearful are loved. It’s at
the cross that the broken hearted are mended and it’s at the cross that you don’t
need to earn your salvation because a God did it for free at the cross.
Where do you go
from here?
At the cross. This
is where the healing begins.