Dark Cages

Acknowledgement of our need of God and reliance upon Him will not always rid us of life's pressures, will not always remove from us the difficult situations, the dark cage within which we sometimes find ourselves trapped. We shall not always escape the pressures of life and the dark situations which they bring. But we can, with God, withstand them and find resources for enduring them even when they, for the time being, do not let up.

If we, who are caged within some darkness and are frantic with fear that our situation is hopeless, would only believe, we would know that our heavenly Father is close by to still our fears and to strengthen us for the ordeal through which we are passing. We would know that He is constantly saying to us: "Don't be afraid; just believe."

But how workable is this formula for confident and victorious living in our daily existence? As we journey along the way of the Cross, we cannot avoid the central fact of faith and trust and its confirmation in Christian experience. The central fact is Christ Jesus our Lord. His event in history showed man his highest possibilities. It pointed us to life's deepest and inexhaustible resources for living through and independent of any set of circumstances. It provided us with a firm basis for the Christian belief that our sufferings, temptations, and perplexities, even the hard and oftentimes sudden demands of life, are fully understood and shared by our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Christ, we have access to an open door of grace and comfort and victory over life's greatest, sometimes unyielding pressures. Freedom from the dark cage of hard times may not happen as a result of our serious thinking or maneuvering, our hardest effort or our best skill, but the key of divine grace and help remains within our reach. All we need to do is pick it up, unlock the cage door, and walk out in the freedom of God's amazing grace.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. http://www.clergyservices4u.org. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, will be available soon.

MORE RESOURCES:

Following the Path of Many Jews Before Him, Victim Went to India ... - Forward

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Spirituality in medicine on the rise, doctor says - Arizona Daily Wildcat

Vows bars mix spirits and spirituality - Asahi Shimbun

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Outskirts Press Announces Sustained by Faith, the Latest Highly ... - PR.com (press release)

Spirituality begins where science ends - Economic Times

Spirituality, Evidence-Based Medicine, and Alcoholics Anonymous - Am J Psychiatry (subscription)

Apply to become part of Student Spirituality Committee - UST Bulletin Today

Festival Celebrates Religious Diversity - The Emory Wheel

The human longing to see the face of God - Catholic Star Herald

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Spirituality institute to celebrate first 10 years - Charleston Gazette

table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-0fd=Rurl=http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200811280579cid=1275695122ei=hxE5SdWVAZWO9QTAz-2kCQusg=AFQjCNF2gsrEEYxthAGQcIGSe4NuVcwxSQbSpirituality/b institute to celebrate first 10 years/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fCharleston Gazette,nbsp; USAnbsp;-/font nobrNov 28, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1The West Virginia Institute for bSpirituality/b will celebrate 10 years of service to the community with an open house from 2 to 4 pm Dec. b.../b/fontbrfont size=-1a href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-1fd=Rurl=http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/200811280582cid=1275695122ei=hxE5SdWVAZWO9QTAz-2kCQusg=AFQjCNEQqcM_3ymGTn94ltxdrbZGi9aQuAKeeping the faith important in tough times/a font size=-1 color=#6f6f6fnobrCharleston Gazette/nobr/font/fontbrfont class=p size=-1a class=p href=http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclientie=ISO-8859-1rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-22,GGLG:enncl=1275695122hl=ennobrall 2 news articles/nobr/a/font/div/font/td/tr/table

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