Sometimes we find ourselves in such a hole that we don’t think we can climb out of it.
We are despondent. We’ve hurt others and ourselves. And we don’t like the self that did this.
Our confidence is gone.
Our self-respect is gone.
And worse, the people we love no longer want to be near us.
We crave a new start–but how do we begin?
We begin where we are–with the hurt. When we actually see, hear, feel, smell and even taste, the hurt, we will be slapped in the face by the sickening affect our actions have had on others. And we will have taken the first step toward starting again.
There will be more steps upward, steps that we won’t be able to climb alone. So secondly, we reach out for help. From where will help come?
It may come from someone we don’t know, someone walks out of the shadows of our past.
But amazingly, it may come from the person/people we have actually hurt–and this includes our own self.
And there is a first step here, too–it’s called asking for forgiveness.
People who truly love us, will forgive us because love, itself, is made up of mercy and forgiveness. Mercy and forgiveness are love’s singular response to suffering.
Setbacks will come. We are fallible people, after all. Even Jesus fell three times while carrying His cross to Calvary. Yet, He got up. He started again, and kept going.
And so can we.
We will never be permanently lost, unless we choose to be permanently lost, because we are made in the image and likeness of God and have been given free will.
We are created to be courageous. To love, to forgive and show mercy to our fellow human beings, and to respect ourselves as beloved children of God.
So, join me. Let’s start again.
Translating a World on the Edge 