the hopeful horizon



   I've had a job in the past that I simply could not stand at times. I think it contributed to depressive symptoms for a few reasons. One was that I didn't like the work I was doing, and another is that I was doing that work a lot. At one point, I even think it contributed to me falling ill for a week. But on top of these reasons was the psychological effect of despair. My situation seemed interminable and incurable. Would I always feel the same way I did every morning when I woke up and wished I could just sleep through the whole day? Would I always be dragging my feet for 45-55 hours of each week and be stressed the rest of the time? Carrying these burdens makes the endurance of a difficult situation much more tiring and arduous than it realistically is.
   Consider how the situation, or at least my response to it, would have been different if I had known that it was temporary. Wouldn't that help you in a tough time? To see a light at the end of the tunnel (cliche, I know) and witness it growing closer, brighter, and more tangible with every step? That was my experience with this job. I was sinking deeper and deeper into an emotional, spiritual, and social rut, and something that helped me endure was the thought of change--in particular, once I started looking for a new job and realized that I could imagine a life with a drastically different working situation, my strength, diligence, and perseverance all grew one size larger.
   I'm sure we don't always take the advice we give. I'll forget some day when I'm in a challenging situation that the circumstances can change. I'll forget many times in the future that my ultimate hope doesn't lie in this world. It will seem too far away, it will be too ethereal to grasp, and it will require me to rely on others and on God. But my goal is to be strengthened by that eternal hope more and more as I live. Because there may be times when a situation is unchangeable and unbearable. And to only be able to hope in a person or a circumstance that is bound to this world is to build a house on sand.
   There usually is hope that you can find a way out of your trials. But how much better is it to have a hope that will never disappoint and that is guaranteed forever?





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