Download - The Perfect Wisdom Web

Be Not Afraid DespairFor the next several years Sheila’s life was anemotional roller coaster – the uphill slopes markedby optimism and confidence that healing was in sight,the downswings eased by medication, pastoral andpsychiatric counseling, and intensive prayer.Sometimes it seemed like a journey through hell,for her condition seemed largely the result of guilt shecarried from a promiscuous and desperately unhappyadolescence. Eventually she came to feel that the onlyway forward was to face that guilt and find redemptionfrom it.Often Sheila and Jim would come to me for advice.Sometimes I was able to offer it; at other times I wasn’t.On those occasions there was nothing to do but sitquietly and plead for God’s intervention and help.Today, seven years after she tried to kill herself,Sheila is the mother of three growing boys and onedaughter – and she is no longer suicidal. She is not sonaïve as to see this as a “happy ending,” for there arestill days, even if rare, when she must battle fear andself-doubt. But having come as far as she has, she isconvinced that even when she feels sad or alone, Godwill not abandon her. “Sometimes I just have to trustthat I’m in his hands,” she says, “even when I don’t feelit.”