straight talk

Never Have I Felt So Broken Nor Abandoned.



Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009

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Have you ever thought never have I felt so broken nor abandoned? It is a terrible feeling that leaves one empty and void of every good emotion. You feel alone, isolated, yes even within a crowd of thousands you remain alone inside yourself where you really are . Hurting even while the outside may seem perfectly normal. I am sure there are millions today who feel this way? It seems that everywhere one turns life's problems overwhelm them. No door to escape through, no where to run or hide. Each day a test of endurance. A true test of strength, persistence and yes courage in the face of overwhelming hardships. Like I said, that is how it is for many Americans today. Suffering under the weight of severe financial and related problems. Yes testing ones very faith and belief systems.

Of course it is fine to hope for that in essence is all that many have and it is good to not lose hope. Yes and to many hope is something they long to see fulfilled. Yet in despair many also do not expect to ever see it materialize and in that perspective they sink deeper and deeper into anxiety, worry, and depression, powerless to stop the spiral and afraid for the very first time that they have no control over tomorrow. They see a lifetime of effort, work, gone and as they sink further they are destroyed and they are attacked, labeled, harassed by the philosophy and ideology of greed, of self, of me of an uncaring society and government.

Well the good news is you are in control . You can make the change. The first step is acknowledgment of truth, reality, your situation. The second step is how. That's right, how can you rise up, out and away? To do this you must walk in faith because it is not an easy road you will walk. It will be strewn with bumps and hills and valleys but and that but is significant, as you walk along you will get one step closer to freedom. When to do it is now. For if you are that person described above, now is the time to move, to act. First you must seek help from those whom can help. Those who have no vested interest in what caused your situation, but only in you and your well being.

So when one reaches that point it truly becomes the true test of who we really are. That is as a person, an individual, in a family, in our nation and yes in our very beliefs. No not just what we profess with our lips, but who we are and what we do as people.

Now to accomplish this that one word, hope, comes forth. What is hope? Well hope translates into faith. Without faith we can do nothing. No faith means death, it is that exact. It can lead to many variations of death, not just physical. Faith is in effect something that there is no proof for. It is what it is because you believe in it. If we say we believe in God then that is all that is required or can be obtained. He is or He isn't. No evidence, smell, touch, taste to confirm, just belief. Like the air we breath. It is just there for us. We know it is there and it gives life. Why, because like I stated without faith we are mere empty, hollow, shells. Yes only our deeds or works can prove the existence of faith in us or not. It is the sign to others of who we really are.

Can an atheist or agnostic have faith? Well yes, but their perspective can sometimes take another route. More prone to worldly help then God. They deal in tangibles and not the unseen, although there is that element of faith. They believe they succeed in a different way and mostly by their own efforts or through what the world offers. Still one must step out in faith.

Now faith is the key to it all . Faith and perseverance the tools of recovery and yes in the case of God, salvation. So when trials come upon us we question. That is normal. If we profess to believe we can ask, why me God, why this God, why? However, if we believe we know by God's Word trials will always be with us. It is a sign that follows believers. If we search after Him, the man of sorrows, then why would we expect less then to share in His sufferings? So as the saying goes, get up and pick up your cross and follow me, that is where the courage, the test, the perseverance, the true faith is. To the unbeliever the same questions only attributed to situation, circumstances, their own deeds.

In the believers world trials that come our demand we continue to persevere and we are forged, refined and shaped into what God wants us to be. In the atheist world through their own efforts. Our sufferings, although not pleasant, may not be for us alone or strangely it may also be for someone else's gain. So suffering, while not enjoyable sets us free from this world and the shallow things it has to offer. It allows us to focus on reality. On loved ones, friends, people and nature.

Certainly not easy. A lot easier for someone else to encourage you while you walk the walk and they observe, yet no less important. It may not change your situation, yet know you are not alone in your walk and yes, you need that encouragement, support. However, foremost, if a believer, one must first accept to lean on the Lord. If you seek Him He will be there for you. Of course it may not seem that way to you but He is there none the less. You see we apply man's thinking to God's and that is where we fail. We know not God's ways. So the answer is place yourself into His hands and watch. Like that movie. The Ten Commandments, Watch and see the greatness of the Lord". It all hinged on that word FAITH which is HOPE. Without it as the Word says, we can do nothing. We must place our faith in Him. Sure the atheist may succeed yet that proves nothing because they exercised faith as you did. You just know where the help comes from and in my opinion they think it is from somewhere else. Yet all the while God is in control of our destiny, all of us and he knows why we all do what we do and suffer as we suffer and gain or fail. No to debate, once again choice.

So know that many suffer each day as you might. For we who profess see in Christ's sufferings His perseverance, undergoing total abandonment by all but a few at the foot of His Cross. Yes at the hands of men, who even professed in God, yet destroyed Him physically via the most horrible of deaths. Yet they could not kill the spirit and hence they could not kill Him. You see Jesus, like us, asked His Father and submitted to the will of His Father in all things, good and bad. Yes and He was able to do all He did through faith in His Father and by His Fathers will.

That is the only answer in my mind- as in Psalm 118.8 NIV.

So here was Christ, totally abandoned, alone on that cross for not one sin that He could be accused of committing. The only sin to the world, truth. Yet in that abandonment is the healing for us all. Once we accept that what is of this world becomes in an instance empty, hollow, of no real value. At that very point we can disclaim it. Shuck it off. Let it go. However, until we do that it is the albatross around our neck.

Now fear is the other sin. We fear what lies ahead. When we fear we do not walk in faith nor trust Him who we profess to believe in. So starting this very moment we must first abandoned ourselves to Him we profess. We must understand that before we can rise again we must be destroyed in this world. That not a physical death, for that accomplishes nothing but more heartache on those we love. No it is death to this world and all that it offers.

So I too know what you are feeling. I too have my moments of doubt, of anger, of fear. I too profess but fall. It is what we are and why we need help, support and others. Yet, in dying to this world and shucking off the evil that I have allowed myself to accept and that this world offers I in essence free myself and my loved ones of that chain, that burden, that cross.

We shuck off that aspect that we created and accepted and we are truly born again. We no longer fear the door bell. We no longer fear the phone. We no longer fear the system. We are as Martin Luther King said, Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God almighty I am Free at last. No one has the power over us any longer but the Lord God. WOW! Think about that. Yes and it all starts with simple words, choice and faith.

In my opinion it is time we who suffer at the hands of the wealthy, the rich, the greedy to give them back all we carry. Carry it no more. Hand it back to them and relinquish it, for it has no real, true value to us. Be it a car, a home, the material things that they place us in bondage with. Give it back and let them deal with it. The sad part for them is they do not know what you do. They do not have what you have, faith, as the rock to stand firm on.

So if we have no credit, really a blessing, for it will force you to deal with reality. To buy only when you can afford. Yes and you will not be able to buy even if you wanted to. Another blessing. You will have cast off your worries and you will begin again. Hopefully with a lesson learned. No superficial material thing to surround you, no worry, misery and strife any longer and for years at a time.

Yes hope is in a clean start, a fresh start. Hope is in faith and trust that God will see you through the dark and into the light of a new day. Yet it takes a first step. It takes bold action. It takes common sense and reasoning and well planned and thought through plans. Yes and we must pray and seek and get the help from where the Lord sends us.

For Christians that is "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". That is a commitment, acceptance, reality not a mere motto. It is only hollow when we omit faith. God can only work when faith is exercised. Put it to work today. Don't accept that which the world and the evil one throws your way. Give it to Him who you profess and He will show you a way.

Now as for our nation, we are at a serious crossroads. Our leaders will either persist in doing what they have done to bring this blight upon us and make no mistake they brought it upon us and it is blight. Just yesterday for the very first time I heard well known journalists and political commentators speaking about the Global disaster. Just last night hey showed a Chines car, electric, competing with our own cars, getting better gas mileage, made via the help of our very own auto industry and due to sell here in the USA next year.

The ball is now in the hands of our new president. If he is the man, never mind politician, the man he claims he is, then he will lead for the well being of us all. So lets give him a chance and support him and yes hope that he will deliver to what he professed. Yet at the same time we should walk carefully, understanding that we should never trust in man alone but realizing that in this case as well God will prevail according to His will. Best wishes and I hope this finds you encouraged to step out in faith.

Let us who profess say this day, Lord I will walk in faith, trusting in You who we profess. Amen.

Robert T. Melaccio Sr. 2008 Copyright 2008 Robert Melaccio Sr.



Robert Melaccio Sr. has worked in the computer industry for 40 plus years in a diversified business and managerial environments. He enjoys freelance writing, giving seminars for young adults and teen groups as well as being an accomplished award winning poet of published poetry. He has worked teaching and as a youth minister. He is married and has three children and three grandchildren.

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