It’s just a thread sometimes, isn’t it?

You feel like you are dangling above a pit of despair. You think if you get one more piece of bad news; if you hear one more criticism; if you have one more thing that doesn’t go your way; if you hear that voice one more time…

Each time, it’s like your pockets are stuffed with a little bit more lead, and you’re hanging by that thread. That single, solitary thread that’s keeping you from falling. Your knuckles are white. Your shoulders are aching. Your emotional strength is exhausted from clinging desperately to that… that… that what?

Is it hope? The thought that maybe things will turn out okay? That perhaps circumstances will change? That maybe your worst fears are actually wrong or maybe your dreams are right? What is that you’re holding onto?

Thank God that we are holding onto something stronger than hope. In fact, thank God that when our grip loosens and we don’t feel like we are holding onto anything at all, there is something that’s actually holding onto us.

When we find ourselves in that situation poised precariously between hope and despair, between what might be in either case, we are like children learning to swim. We cling to our daddy’s shoulders as if by our strength we can keep ourselves from slipping underwater. It’s only in retrospect that we look back on those moments and see just how much we were fooling ourselves. We aren’t holding onto hope; the God of hope is holding onto us.