What to do in desperate times
Beckie Littler,
12th Oct 2019
Tags:
Life
Blog
Depression
Father God
Hope
Last night I gave a talk to my church’s youth group. My talk was about how God strategically places people in our lives to help us through tough times. That talk was based around a blog I wrote and how my life was changed by a teacher I met in high school.
I know that there have been challenging times in my life when taking another step feels impossible, but there are three clear examples where I've seen God place someone there to help me.
1) When my best friend moved to Spain.
We had just finished high school and we had known each other ever since reception in primary school. I cried at church and was completely heartbroken that he was leaving to go to college in Spain. I was going to be without my best friend. I was a mess.
I felt that my relationship with my best friend was over.
Then someone at church asked me if I was okay. I never normally cried so there was no lying and saying that I was fine. I explained that I felt that my relationship with my best friend was over and we'd never be as close as we were in school.
We talked about the ways I could still keep in contact with him when he moved, and that really helped me to get out of that place of utter heartbreak and desperation.
2) When I was pregnant and I found out that one of my babies had a cyst on his brain.
That was a terrifying moment and I remember the consultant telling me to talk to my family and think about my options. I remember going to them and just crying uncontrollably because I thought that my baby wasn’t going to be ok. I couldn’t do anything about it, I was helpless.
My sister reminded me of my experience working with special needs children. She told me that if my baby had additional needs, he couldn't have a better mum to care for him.
I was in control of how I handled it.
That made me feel confident that even though I wasn’t in control of the cyst in my baby’s brain, I was in control of how I handled it. So when the consultant asked me if I wanted to terminate the baby, I said no.
I knew that no matter what happened my baby would be loved and protected by his mum and her family.
3) When I was 20 years old and my son died.
We had just had the awful event of my oldest son’s death. I felt so confused and angry but I had no one to be angry with because it was nobody’s fault. I remember being in the hospital that night with my youngest son and the hospital staff wanted us to stay in the hospital all night and they wanted to do endless tests on my son to make sure he was going to be ok. I didn’t want to stay.
My mum encouraged me to stay because it was the best for my son.
The last time I was in the hospital was when I had my sons and I felt trapped by that building. I did not want to go through that again. I was ready to leave but my mum encouraged me to stay because it was the best for my son.
She was right. That night my youngest son was really unsettled and the nurses diagnosed that he had silent reflux and was in pain every time he lay on his back. We had no idea. We just thought he was a normal baby that cried a lot.
Once we left the hospital my mum was an incredible support for me. She really helped me to take the first step to carrying on with my life.
My point is that in those times of desperation in my life when I felt like all hope was lost, God sent people who knew just what to say to keep me going.
My prayer for anyone reading this is that you know that God will bring people to walk with you, but you have always been capable of the journey.
Life may have times where you feel like giving up, but anything worth having is absolutely worth fighting for.
So ask God to help you when you need someone in your corner.
