Never Despair
We all walk a path through the maze of life. Sometimes we feel desperately alone. The woods about are dark and haunting. We often feel we don't know where we're going.
This has been very true for me. It's at times like that that I stumble, even fall and hurt myself in one way or another. Despair seems easy. Like a child who whimpers over a bruised knee we comfort ourselves in despair by justifying all the wrong that has left us alone and in the dark.
How many times I have felt this way! Countless days and numberless years, I have felt like a lost child in a dark forest, unable to see the sunshine, unable to get a bearing, alone with no understanding of which way to go.
Then one day, because I'm a writer, I set out to study story-telling. I decided maybe that was the way to go, that if I learned to tell better stories, I'd one day be found and my books would have greater influence, greater meaning. I was right!
I was surprised as well, because what I plotted in my understanding of story became a map for my own life. An angel appeared on the trail beside me and above to give me insight and encouragement. God let me know that I was on the right track, that the direction I was heading was correct. All I needed to do, He said through this angel of light, was "continue on and do not despair!"
When I looked into what He meant, for I meditated on it long, I realized a most valuable thing. I realized that despair itself was a dark power ruling over me and that when I cast it off by disclaiming it and chose joy instead by praising God, not only did the darkness leave, but the trail opened up. I found my direction. I saw the way.
This, then, is the first step in our journey. Lay down all your indulgence in negative justification. Trust God. Press forward. He created you! Can there be a mistake in that?
No. No mistake. So shed the darkness, child of God. Disclaim it. Proclaim your birthright. Praise God and think on all things good. Throw away all that which is not. That's the first step on your way out of the woods.
