When you feel all hope is lost ...

To you, the woman who feels like there is no hope. To you, the woman who feels like things could never get any worse than they are right now. To you, the woman who feels like her life is spinning out of control.

I see you.

I {Melissa} see you dangling from the side of the cliff. Red rock crumbling between your fingers as you frantically grasp, hoping you will catch even just a piece of a branch or some other lifeline that will pull you to solid ground.

I see you.

I don’t know how you got here.

Maybe a marriage that has spun into places you never imagined.

Maybe a loss more disappointing than you ever dreamed.

Maybe a medical diagnosis that you couldn’t have prepared for.

Maybe a child or a friend or someone else close to you who has drifted too far away.

Whatever brought you here, know that I see you. I see the tears rolling down your cheeks as you grasp and grasp some more. I see the pain in your heart as you try to make sense of the hurt. I see the fear in your eyes as you wonder what’s next.

I see you, because I am right there with you.

Do you see me? On the other side of the canyon? Look...there I am... grasping for those same lifelines that you are. Feeling weaker and more defeated with each attempt. Clinging to any ounce of comfort I can get my fingers on as I keep trying to press through this difficult season.

And, like you, I’m dangling. The lifelines aren’t coming. My footing remains unsteady. I don’t know what to do next.

But, my dear friend, I want to let you in on a little something that I am learning.

As long as we keep grasping for things in this world to be our lifeline, we will always feel hopeless. As long as we believe that we alone have the strength to pull ourselves out of whatever mess we are experiencing, we will always be dangling on a dangerous edge. As long as we let our pain and our worry and our fear dictate our decisions, we will never experience true peace.

So what are we to do?

When life overwhelms us?

When the struggles press in on our chests making it so hard to take even one more breath?

When our spirits are so weak that we can hardly muster up the strength to carry on?

The answer is simple.

It’s time to let go.

It’s time to let go of the earthly lifelines that we are clinging to, grasping for … because they won’t last. Because they won’t support us and the weight of our pain. Because they will never bring us the authentic peace and joy that we so desperately crave.

It’s time to let go and trust that the only lifeline that we will ever need will catch us. Because He will.

He’s waiting. At the bottom. Ready to lift us up. Ready to help us regain our footing. Ready to help us see the beauty in the brokenness. Ready to restore us. If only we will let Him.

It seems counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? To climb out, we need to let go – to fall, even. But Jesus has shown us time and time again through His promises that He is ever faithful, ever present and the only true solution to our hopelessness.

In Him, our weakness is made strong.

In Him, our cowardice is made courageous.

In Him, our fear becomes brave.

In Him, our disappointment becomes comfort.

Today, I am clinging to those promises and listening to His urging to release my grasp on what I think are the answers – the things of this world – and to begin the fall into His strong, open and ever loving arms. Because it is there and only there that we will find hope and joy and peace and love and the promise of a future more awesome than we could even imagine. The one that our Lord God has laid out for us …

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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 15:13)