Today, pain and loss slammed into your heart like the wild surf. Bitterness and resentment threatened to suck you under like a foamy undercurrent.

Lean into me instead.

Don’t be afraid of powerful emotions, but let me tame them. Allow me to make them flow through you like a rippling brook.

This is part of mourning: these churning emotions that seize your mind and your heart.. Let the tears come like a river that washes the throbbing from your heart.

Grieve with tears and moans and pain, my dear, and I will hold you close.

Lean into me as I whisper words of love and strength.

But when the pain tries to steal your heart, choose me instead.

You will feel the distress, but it need not be master of your life.

Despair brings chaos and agony. I bring healing and renewal.

Choose me.

When you go through deep waters,

I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty,

you will not drown.

When you walk through the fire of oppression,

you will not be burned up;

the flames will not consume you.

For I am the Lord, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Isaiah 43:2-3

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. All rights reserved.

Also, my book, Cutting Through Despair: Dare to Hope, offers stories of people who have faced hardships and found hope in God.