Confronting Despair As A Spiritual Practice

I recently read an article in the Washington Post warning that there is a rising tide of despair in the United States. Depression rates are rising, as are suicide rates.

Loneliness has gotten to such a serious point that some are calling it a major health epidemic. We live in a world that is full of despair, but I don’t think it needs to stay that way.

A number of years ago I had the privilege of working as a hospital chaplain in a pastoral training program. I spent the whole summer going into people’s rooms who were in the midst of crisis. Many of the people I talked with were attempting to cope with a world in which all the certainty they had about the future was now gone. Some were working through the sudden loss of a spouse, a parent or even a child. Others were wrestling with a diagnosis that would completely change their lifestyle or life expectancy. Many people who invited me to talk to them knew they were in a crisis and needed help.

One of the key things I learned when working in the hospital is that despair and hope are deeply connected. One might even say that despair itself is simply unfed hope.

Despair happens when the human heart is starved of the light of hope it needs to move. This starvation can kill a person’s will to live. Each day can become an overwhelming burden and a crippling weight. When a person feels despair the whole world seems full of darkness. The dangerous thing is that despair can compound and soon a person will be unable to make the choices within their power that could make life better.

Despair is like a black hole that sucks in everything around it and a person caught in its gravitational field has no ability to break free. Without hope, there simply isn’t enough fuel to produce the velocity needed to escape. This is why the world needs agents of hope.

During my time in the hospital, I learned that when someone takes the time to give hope
to a person in despair it can often be enough to break out of the black hole. Time and time again I saw new light begin to shine in people’s lives. It happened when I was able to take the time to meet the person in their darkness and to sit with them in love believing a better future for them in my heart than they believed for themselves. It wasn’t quick or easy, but when you saw a light return to a person’s eyes; it was worth it.

There are few things in life more terrifying than a loss of one’s reason for living. There is also no work more difficult or fulfilling, that I have experienced, than working to give people who are trapped in despair a new way forward to live in hope.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we lived in a world full of people who took this work seriously? What if our fellow students, coworkers, and neighbors all woke up believing they were on a mission to confront despair with lives of hope. That world is possible and it starts with you.

Action for Today

Think about what’s going on in your life over the next day or two.
Share or write down what your day is going to be like. Do you think that there might be some opportunities while you are going about your life to give hope to another person? Remember to keep your eyes, heart and time open.
Take a moment to offer your plans to God as a gift to be used in whatever way can give hope. Share your plan with someone else! Try to make this a daily habit.