If you know someone who’s struggling against hopelessness, there are ways you can help foster hope. Surround your loved one with prayer. Draw him or her out of social isolation by just being present with them.
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with powerful steps toward hope.
We all know people who could use a little hope, actually, these days a lot of hope, right? I'm thinking today though of my Dutch friend Ruth and her mother, Ank Verboom. For all her life, Ank has been a strong, stalwart woman of faith. She lives in Holland and she and her husband have raised 7 children; many of whom have served as missionaries: three with their families in Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique, one in Israel, another in Europe. And Ruth has served in Asia and now lives with her husband in California. Ank has served her children well, and Ruth and her siblings are all Christians walking in exceptional ways for the Lord Jesus because of it.
But Ank Verboom is in her 80s now and facing lots of changes in her life. Her husband is almost 90, and they’re thinking of downsizing to a smaller living quarters. It involved letting go and relinquishing a lot of things, a lot of stuff; and closing a chapter in their lives. All of it attached to memories of earlier days when Ank Verboom and her husband were much younger. No one was more surprised by the depression than Ank herself. She tells Ruth, “This just isn’t like me; I'm normally a strong, take-charge type, but now, I can’t seem to rise above these dark feelings.”
Whenever Ruth and I get together, we pray for her mother. I was so glad when Ruth was able to fly to Holland recently to spend a week with her mom. Of course, Ank has a great church and family in Holland, but it brightened her spirits to see her daughter from America. When Ruth returned home and I asked how things went, she said that the best thing, that which helped her mother the most was just to be with her. Taking quiet walks in the park, stopping by a coffee shop. Sitting long and looking at the flowers, praying together. Ruth observed that some of her mother’s friends are quick and ready with lots of advice as to what Ank should do, where to go, how she should respond, how to rise up out of depression, “this is what you need to do.” After all, the Dutch are ‘can-do’ kinds of people.
But what has helped the most is to have people like Ruth – who just sit long and talk little; to just “be” with her through her dismal feelings. I guess it’s a little like Job’s three friends in Job 2:13, where it says, “They sat on the ground with [Job] for seven days and nights. No one said a word to Job, for they saw that his suffering was too great for words.” Now friends, that’s a gift – to be sensitive enough, to be wise enough to recognize that a loved one’s suffering just might be too great for words. It’s probably the best thing Job’s comforters did!
And if you know someone who’s struggling against hopelessness, there are ways you can help foster hope. Surround your loved one with prayer. Draw him or her out of social isolation. Take a walk, spend time in a park watching children play. Meet any practical need and provide whatever resource might be required. Sometimes a little hands-on help lightens the spirits. Encircle your loved one with spiritual community, people who will uplift and encourage. And keep in contact, sending encouraging words in a note; or making a phone call. And finally, keep nudging the one without hope toward the blessed hope, Jesus. And hey, if you need more inspiration, you just have to go to my blog today at joniradio.org. Again, that’s my blog at joniradio.org. God bless you today and thanks for listening!
© Joni and Friends