All Is Not Lost

Dear lovely people,

While Sandas packed his belongings from his former desk, he concluded all was lost for him. It was the fifth job he had just been fired from for almost always the same reasons; late coming, patchiness, lack of concentration, lack of attention to details, deceitfulness and chronic procrastination. How could all of these find themselves in one person? The same person who believed he was working tooth and nail to get a better life for himself and his future family. It was however clear that Sandas was no stranger to his own behavior.

Three months later, Sandas was already in the red, with bills to pay and having been rejected from three job interviews. Time was not on his side any longer. On his way home one evening, he met a mad man on the road who insulted him, telling him how stupid, hopeless and dreamless he was. At one point, Sandas could not belief it was a mad man talking to him, he even thought that the man was some pretender purposely out to remind him of his unbecoming attitude.

The mad man’s words kept on resonating in Sandas head the rest of the night and the next day, “how could a mad man describe him so succinctly?” he kept on asking himself and so decided to retrospectively examine his life and his journey towards prominence. That is when he realized that there are times in one’s life when things are so bad it is as if all hope is lost.

Sandas realized how much of a mess he had been to his own growth path and because he decided to retrace the right path, he told himself it was time to examine each of the negative descriptions labeled him and to improve upon them.

For the first time again, Sandas was browsing through his Bible and stumbled on Psalm 25:16-17 “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart and free me from my anguish.”

There is not a feeling we can have that God is not aware of. He knows when we are hurting, lost, lonely, and afraid. When we cry out to him in our affliction, he responds tenderly. While our troubles may not go away, his loving response to our prayers can help us face them with renewed strength. And as Hebrews 4:16 advices “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”