Coping Through Christ

It is better to face disappointment and feel it than to pretend it is not there. And when I say “feel it”—I mean exactly that. Most people, I find, just walk around the edges of their disappointment, in the way they would walk cautiously around the rim of a volcano, admitting they have been disappointed but working hard (often unconsciously) to blunt the feelings of disappointment with a “let’s not stay here too long” attitude.

The usual response to what I am now saying is: “Surely there is no point in being willing to enter into all the pain of our disappointments. What is past is past; isn’t it better to forget the hurts and disappointments of the past and get on with life?”

Sounds quite rational and sensible, doesn’t it? However, it is not the best way to deal with life. The more deeply we are willing to face our disappointments, the readier we will be to turn to Christ and draw from Him the strength we need to cope with them.

The danger we face when we are unwilling to feel as openly as possible the disappointments that come our way is that we will come to depend on our own strategies to cope with them and turn only partially to Christ for strength. Facing and feeling disappointment is a sure way of coming to recognize that God is the only One who can help us cope. When we face and feel our disappointments, we will cling more closely to Christ.

Further Study

1Kgs 19; Heb 4:15

What was Elijah’s disappointment?

How did he respond to it?