It was the last e-mail she ever thought she'd get.
You know, you’ve likely gotten one yourself. That gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, dream-shattering e-mail.
She had been hoping, praying, dreaming, planning, working, and saving toward a thrilling opportunity.
And then she wasn’t.
It’s a dreadful halt when a door you’ve been striving toward is slammed shut in your face.
Her voice quivered on the other end of the line. I choked on her disappointment. And I strained against the noise to hear. The noise of her pain . . . the noise of my heart.
My heart pounded so hard, I hardly believed what I heard her say.
My mind groped for words of comfort . . . and came up empty. They were all I had to extend—because my arms were out of hugging reach.
I ached to soothe her pain . . . dry her tears. Send her where her disappointment would be met with compassionate empathy.
Disappointments can send us to a variety of places. They can send us to a loved one for comfort. Drive us mad with resentment. Or spiral us into an unhealthy vice for escape.
Disappointments can surely send us reeling, though, can’t they? But in the spin, we can dive deep into the Lord.
When visited by the let-downs of this world, we can lift our hearts to the One Who holds all of heaven and earth in His hands . . . and be met with mercy.
In her despondency, all I could do was send her into the only arms big enough to hold her swollen heart: God’s.
I know the Lord can be trusted completely to mend her broken heart and fill the void from what’s been lost. He can lift a heavy head and relieve our every disappointment.
In the aftermath of unanswered questions, and a longing to understand, God is the refuge for restoration.
The psalmists knew it.
We read, page after page, how they turned to the Lord in trust—still able to praise Him in their anguish.
They prayed through their disappointments.
They prayed their way to Him.
So, really, the best place disappointments can send us is before a Person. The Person Jesus Christ.
They are packed with the potential to send us prayerfully into His presence, where hope is rightly renewed. Because — really and truly — communion with Him surpasses every worldly thing that disappoints.
Republished from the archives
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