Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | I am expecting the Lord to rescue me again, so that once again I will see his goodness to me here in the land of the living. Don’t be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stouthearted, and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you. Psalm 27:13-14, LB

When your world collapses, it is not only your body or purse which takes a hit, it is your spirit and soul as well. The warning light on the instrument panel of your equilibrium starts blinking red, which means you’ve stopped thinking straight. You say things which you no more believe than you would argue that evil is good, the world is flat, and that God’s character is badly flawed.

It’s like a sharp blow to the head which momentarily jars you. The floor wobbles beneath you, and you are not sure that your feet will hold you. “Just a minute,” you may be thinking,” is this a kind of temporary, spiritual black-out?” I suppose you might put it like that.

I’m thinking of Joseph Parker, a godly man who filled the pulpit of a church in London until his death in 1902. When Parker’s wife was stricken with cancer, he saw her die a terribly agonizing death. There was nothing he could do to alleviate her suffering. He was physically and emotionally exhausted, too, and when she finally died, he lapsed into the despair of atheism. He said that if he had had a dog who suffered as she did, he would have killed it to put it out of its misery.

No, God didn’t take Parker at face value in his time of despair, and he recovered from the trauma of what happened to him. The fact is when our lives are struck by trauma, we sometimes doubt what we know to be true and believe what we really know is untrue.

Take time to make a careful study of the book of Job, one of the oldest recorded dramas in the Bible, and there you will find the same situation—men blaming God for what Satan had done, castigating the Almighty for the temporary blindness of irrational men who had lost sight of God’s essential goodness, His nature and character.

OK, what do you do when you suffer spiritual amnesia or temporary loss of eternal vision?

First, be careful what you say and argue for. True, God usually doesn’t take our discourses very seriously when we have sustained a blow. David wrote that the Lord remembers our frame; He knows that we are dust. Yet, you don’t want your gyrations into disbelief to be taken seriously by others or go so far that you can’t find your way back home.

Then get encouragement from the right sources—friends who will listen to you, sifting the wheat from the chaff, empathizing with you but not letting you get away with walking away from what you know is right. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” Thank God you have friends who love you enough to tell you what you are saying doesn’t make sense, and your friends know that you know that as well.

Be absolutely honest with God. A dad, having lost his four-year-old, sat listening to the pastor speaking at the boy’s memorial service. Muttering under his breath, he found himself saying, “God, I’ll get even with you if it’s the last thing I ever do.” And then coming to his senses, he realized, how foolish! “How could I get even with God?” he thought, and then let the tears of grief flow.

Don’t blame God for what He is not responsible for. Don’t stand outside the place of refuge to which you can run. Don’t believe your doubts or doubt your beliefs. Realize God knows. God understands. And God will heal your broken heart. Remember you can either turn to Him when your world reels and crumbles, or you can turn on Him.

When you close the door of your life on God, it’s a very dark, dark world out there.

Resource reading: Psalm 27.