“I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them.
I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.
These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them.”
That’s a beautiful verse, and an even more beautiful truth.
It’s helpful to read, but at times, can be hard, because it is so puzzling to our experience.
There can be such a discord between these beautiful verses and our own lives.
Because God promises to “turn the darkness…. into light” and many of us move (well, barely move) in this difficult shroud of weight our entire lives.
I once talked to someone who nearly lost his faith because verses like this seemed so hollow to the reality of not only what he experienced, but what he also saw other Christians experience.
I know.
Of course, once the trial is gone, it’s easy to get into the spirit of, “Woohoo I learned important things from it! God had a purpose!”
But what if they never leave?
What if we never learn anything from the trial that persists (after all, we’re taught by other Christians that trials only exist in “seasons”) except to further doubt words that seem empty?
That’s the case for many Christians who hear these verses.
We’re expected to be “blessed” by them (and often are), but let’s be honest — they can often feel like empty promises.
But the key word there is “feel.”
How we feel doesn’t reflect how it is.
And in that particular passage from Isaiah, the thing I hold onto is the truth, at the end, that persists now how matter how we feel.
God says: “I do not forsake them.”
Maybe you and I feel we aren’t on the “level ground” or “light place” of this verse.
But no matter how we feel, or what things look like, there’s this thing we know: God does not forsake us.
How do we know that?
Because a perfect Father never forsakes his children.
Never.
Even an imperfect one. The thought of forsaking my children is the most jaw-droppingly terrible one I can fathom.
Elsewhere in Isaiah, God says: “See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands.”
He’s got a tattoo of your name and mine.
And in Isaiah, he also compares himself to a breastfeeding mother: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast?”
A Father, inked up in devotion with our name, a Mother who’s breastfeeding her baby that has become her entire life.
So yes, when God says he won’t forsake us, he won’t.
Or else he’s a liar.
And it seems one of the most basic tenants of faith rests on the premise that God doesn’t lie.
But if he doesn’t lie, he’s with you right now, and will never forsake you.
If you feel forsaken in your condition of depression, anxiety, mood disorders, the place to go is the root of the problem, and that is best addressed by…
Find a psychiatrist here.
Find a therapist here.
I know that sounds terribly unspiritual to say, but medication, therapy — those are things God gives us to help our medical problems.
And depression that persists, anxiety that disorients, ocd that plagues us. Medical.
[Painting: Compassion, William-Adolphe Bouguereau]
