ONE OF THE RICHEST BLESSINGS in this life is the Presence of God in midst of great turmoil. As I watched afresh the Avril Lavigne video, I’m With You, I was reminded of a pain so real and so possible to life. Life is so stark, so raw and horrible at times. But, we also all too easily forget the Lord—our relational God—is there with us in all of it.
‘It’s a damned cold night, trying to figure out this life...’
Indeed.
But the problem is, figuring out this life is not our task.
In the most tear-filled and pained knowledge of life we can somehow note that the grace of God finds us there—his still, silent and comforting Presence. Once we experience this we’re hooked a hundred times more powerfully than any illicit drug on the planet. We can’t help but follow for we’ve received the most paradoxical keys—to his Kingdom. Yet, retaining a sense of his Presence is our problem.
If we’re only focused on the person of Jesus, all else sorts itself.
And yet, depths like these can only be touched effectively in the rawest sense. Loneliness becomes us and we hate it. We feel so bereft and let down we’ll cling to any sort of hope; often the wrong sort of hope. The vulnerable heart is stifled from hope—hope doesn’t look like it looked a week ago, a month ago or a year ago. We pine for those times. Hope for the future vanishes as we hasten back to a past so much better than now.
And in this...
Jesus says, ‘I’m with you,’ in your darkest moments. Our Blessed Hope—yours and mine. His hope for you is a hope you can decently cling to. All will work out in faith.
© 2010 S. J. Wickham.
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