Always

"Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

People, at some point in their lives, will face some disappointment. It's just the way things are. That first broken heart. (and the second, the third, the fourth...) The first experience of defeat instead of victory. The desertion of all willpower when confronted with a Krispy Kreame donut. Even the disappointment to ourselves, as time moves on, and our own bodies conspire against us. (If the scales of justice were mine to use, they would be equally balanced between Imodium and Metamucil - my colon cancer buddies will recognize this one!)

Maybe those last two are more mine :), but it's still the same feeling - disappointment. And when disappointment hits, it is almost always accompanied by its old friend - isolation. We retreat with our wounds, and try to close off anything that could hurt. But what really happens is we dwell on the disappointment even more, and use it as the stick to beat ourselves with. The prophet Elijah went through it (1 Kings 19), David went through it (Psalm 22), Jacob went through it (Genesis 32). All men experience that. They feel it is just them against the world. But that is an illusion. We think that because we hurt, God is no longer there. In truth, He is closest when we are hurting, so that He can give peace in our trial. While the wounds may not disappear, He is there to be with us through the suffering.

Reach out to Him. Accept His Love. Accept His peace that comes, even when there seems to be nothing to be peaceful about. It is in this, His greatest healing occurs. In this, His strength comes through in our weakness. Because He is with us, always.