The Step of Despair

A man with leprosy comes to Jesus and falls on his face before him. “If you are willing,” he cries, “you can make me clean.” Jesus reaches out his hand, touches him and says, “Be clean.” In that moment the disease left him.

This is the faith God desires: a confession that knows the world holds no hope at all, and still clings to Jesus, pleading with him for life. People live by hope, but despair is the heart giving way when a soul once held in love chooses the world in the end. Like Samuel when he was told to pray for Saul no longer, there comes a point where one sees that placing hope in people was itself despair.

The last step God’s people must climb is the step of despair. Only when Christians accept that the world has already been judged, and that no one changes unless born again of the Holy Spirit, can they share the gospel without losing heart. Knowing that despair, they come to see all the more deeply that Christ alone, shining in the darkness, is their hope.