One of my mother’s favorite phrases was, “This too shall pass.”It was one of those “Just hang on” phrases that moms and dads use to encourage their children not to give up or give in to frustration or despair. Frustration and despair are common currency in all countries, cultures, and individuals. You can see it in all walks of life, all religions and faiths, all levels of success and failure. You might consider that it is planet wide and ocean deep.

Misery, the absence of good, has a brother who is fatalism. Fatalism sings back up to misery’s lead, telling you that misery will never go away. You get sick with the flu, pinned to the bed, and it seems that it will never go away, until it does. Misery attacks health and circumstances. Fatalism attacks expectations and perception. They can be very formidable as a tag team wrestling partnership. They can seem pretty huge when you are the skinny kid standing across the ring facing them alone. The alone part is the biggest deceit.

You are not alone. Misery and fatalism will try to talk you into self-isolating, running into a private cave, a private hell. Lies. There are people around you, even the annoying ones, who want you to get better, even when they don’t know how to say it. There are prayer partners and hundreds who have written books about facing the same issues you face. You are surrounded by movies, books, testimonies, preachers and so many more who have suffered and won, suffered and grown, suffered and become deeper persons – the kind you automatically go to for help.

I was going through a rough patch and was convinced I was helpless and powerless. I pray more when I’m distressed, which is sad to say, but true. I landed on a series of questions posed by the Lord. “Without any change in your situation can you — Love Me, be loved by Me, and love others like I do?” The questions began to cause a shift from helpless to helpful, from powerless to empowered. No distress in life or circumstance can separate me from God’s love or His life, which I can both experience and share. I can have hope and faith during a time of misery. I don’t have to wait until it’s over to be strong. I’m not alone for the Father is with me, speaking words of hope, of faith, and of love. He has surrounded each of us with a cloud of witnesses, easily accessible.

As mom said, “This (misery) too shall pass.” However, joy and hope can be continuous and without end. “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.””
John 16:33 ESV