By Craig Beeman
“It’s tough.” “It’s not fair.” “It makes me angry.” All of these are feelings and emotions we experience from time to time. At those times when we experience these emotions we really do not want to hear the quote from Chuck Swindoll that states, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” No, at the time we are hurting, we are hurting. The pain we experience in a situation is raw, painful and very real.
At the moment of the impact of horrible news what we experience is a sense of helplessness. Each one of us has a built-in desire to be in control of our lives at some level. Each one of us, when faced with an issue we cannot fix or control, experiences a sense of helplessness. Helplessness is defined as being “marked by an inability to act or react.” It is that true feeling and reality that there is nothing we can do to help in a given situation. Loss of the ability to help is truly a horrible feeling to experience.
My opinion, if it matters or helps, is that this sense of helplessness is helpful to us. WHAT? I know. I know. None of us like feeling that way. None of us desire to feel as if we are not in control of our own lives. Helplessness is one of those feelings no one likes to have. I believe God has allowed the feeling of helplessness to exist because it should be a feeling that drives us into His arms. If not immediately then eventually a believer turns to God. For the unbeliever it could be that they turn to God or they may choose a darker path. For the sake of this article I am speaking to those who are believers.
When one experiences helplessness, one seeks to find help. If that person is a believer then that help is found in the arms of God. He is there to comfort and care. When one feels helpless one should make a beeline to God.
Make no mistake helplessness is not hopelessness. Hopelessness is defined as “giving no reason to expect good or success.” When a person feels hopeless it is one of the worst feelings a person can experience. With God, the believer always has hope. “Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him For the help of His presence.” (Psalm 42:5) With God there is life beyond this world. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) With God there is comfort. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4) 7 “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) With God there is peace. “The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace.” (Psalm 29:11)
Craig Beeman is pastor of First Baptist Church in Winnsboro and chairman of the board of trustees for the Baptist Message.
