Doubt. Distress. Darkness.
That's where Solomon was when he wrote Ecclesiastes. He pulls no punches, giving us one of the rawest pictures in Scripture of how life can feel when our perspective goes dark: "If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he- for it comes in vanity and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness. Though it has not seen the sun or known anything, this has more rest than that man, even if he lives a thousand years twice-but has not seen goodness. Do not all go to one place?" Ecclesiastes 6:3-6
Solomon is writing on the near side of the cross, staring into the void and asking the question that haunts every human heart in its darkest hour: "Is this all there is?"
But we're not stuck on the near side of the cross. We've seen the empty tomb. We know the One who stepped into the darkness, took on flesh, defeated death, and is right now making all things new.
There is no situation too broken, no heart too far gone, no darkness too deep for Jesus to reach, redeem, and restore.
Do you believe that? Not just as a memorized Sunday-school answer, but deep down in your bones?
When those old thoughts of despair creep in, we don't have to fight them with positive thinking. We fight them with truth about who God really is. Take a slow, prayerful minute today and read these passages:
Hebrews 10:5-25
Philippians 2:5-11
Ephesians 2:1-10
Let the glory of Christ flood the dark corners. Because when we truly see Him, high and lifted up, yet scarred for us, even our darkest moments are pierced by the His glorious light, goodness and grace.
-To Know Jesus. To Live on Mission.