Have you ever felt despair? Have you ever had a time in your life when you knew that you messed up things? I am sure that you have. We all have at some point in our lives. We are only human, right? As people, we tend to put our foot in our mouth or make an error in judgment. Sometimes, we mess up the job we are to do. Nothing that is intentional, but it happens from time to time whether we want it to or not.
I remember a time when I was working at Wendy’s part-time during Covid to make extra money because my hours were cut drastically with my employer because I could not go into the nursing homes to see the patients I would normally see. So, all I was able to do was see my home patients.
Wendy’s was not a place I really enjoyed working in since I had not worked there since I was 16 years old. Now I was back in this place, and they mainly kept me on the grill and making sandwiches because, well, things had not really changed much since I was 16, and I remembered how to make the food and did not have to be trained to be able to do it.
However, this one time, I was put on the drive-through. Now, this was different from the time I was 16 years old. It had been computerized, prices and different types of headsets changed, and the list could go on. I really felt like a fish out of water, and things were moving very quickly. I had only 3 minutes of training at the drive-through that day and was left there to take the dinner rush. Man, I wished I could return to the grill and make the food because I was familiar with and comfortable in that place.
After 20 minutes went by, I was a little slow. However, I was not doing so badly, and then something happened. I had messed this man’s order up and did not know until he blew up on me in the drive-through. I had pushed the wrong sandwich button, and he received a chicken sandwich, not the bacon cheeseburger he had stated.
I realized my mistake and tried to correct it by telling him I would be happy to change his sandwich; however, this man was not letting me make things better. He was not just mad that his sandwich was messed up, but he was mad at the slow service in the drive-through. Here I was, listening to him scream at me, telling me how I messed up and how slow I was when I only had 3 minutes of training in this position before he came that day. I felt bad, I felt discouraged because I knew I had messed up and was slow. This guy knew how to make a person feel worthless.
Then I remembered I had a manager who was this motherly figure type of woman and was understanding and slow to anger. At that moment, I felt hope breaking through my despair. Even though I messed up things, I knew that she was forgiving and graceful even though the man in front of me was not. I went to her and told her how I messed up, and she took care of the situation.
Lamentations 3:21-24 says, “Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”
Jeremiah had a similar realization in these verses: in a moment of despair, he remembered the goodness of his God. Although his people had been disobedient, they would not be consumed by the affliction that they were enduring because of their disobedience.
While it is important for us to receive and remember the affliction that comes about when we wander outside of God’s will, it is equally important for us to allow hope in God to break through. We must feel the weight of our faithlessness and then turn toward the warmth and hope that is found in God’s faithfulness.
Allow hope in God’s faithfulness to break through despair. He is a forgiving and graceful God. He is always there for us in our despair and troubles.
Reader Comments(0)