Ever had one of those days?

Have you ever had a day when you feel lonely?
Have you ever had a day when you feel sad?
When all your special dreams have lost their golden gleam,
And ev'ry thing you've ever had seems bad?

Have you ever had a day when there's no brightness?
Have you ever had a day when skies are grey?
When no-one seems to care or even know you're there,
And all your special friends have gone away?

I’m sure we’ve all had days when we’ve felt like that – Days that we wish would just end almost as soon as they started; Days when everything that could got wrong, seems to go wrong.

Days like that hopefully don’t happen to you very often, but when they do, remember these words

Don't despair; turn around and see Him standing there,
Don't despair; turn around I know he'll care.
He'll change your darkness into sunlight;
Don't despair; turn around I know he'll care.

These words are from a song that was published a number of years ago for Salvation Army Songsters (senior choirs) to sing. Based on the words of the verses you might expect it to be quite a slow, sad song, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, as it’s quite an upbeat tune.

The words of the chorus which instruct us “Don’t despair!” may seem like a directive – That I’m sure is not the intention, as I’m sure they’re just intended to ensure the listener that even in our darkest moments we can be optimistic, as we have the faith to believe in Christ, not just because we believe ‘things will turn around’, but because we are assured of God’s love for us.

Nothing, nothing at all ‘in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’

Romans 8:39

This is why we can say without doubt that “Don’t despair!”