If you're going through hell...

“If you're going through hell, keep going.”
-Winston Churchill

Recently, I found myself lost while driving in a part of town I was not familiar with. I’d like to blame Mapquest for faulty information, but the truth is that I left the directions at home. I’m usually pretty good at navigating, and had a general sense of where I needed to go, so I decided to journey forth anyway. But as I neared my destination, I took the wrong off-ramp, and then several wrong turns. After several minutes of wandering into one dead-end after another, I had to admit that I was officially lost.

The bigger issue, however, was that I'd also somehow managed to find my way into the most unsafe neighborhood I’d ever been in, complete with broken street lights, drug deals, and gangbangers congregating on street corners. I was confused about my surroundings, but clear that to stop moving, to park and sit, to curse my lot and quit trying to find my way out would be unhealthy in more ways than one. I was not in hell, but it was close enough.

“If you find yourself in hell, keep going.”

I gathered myself and began again to look for street signs and landmarks that would point me in the right direction and re-orient me. Carefully, I exited this dark labyrinth and eventually entered a safer neighborhood where I could pull over and ask for help.

Life will sometimes feel like one dead-end after another, in a dangerous neighborhood, without a way out. Regardless of who you are, you will on occasion find yourself in hell. You can set out with a fair amount of confidence that where you’re intending to go is where you’re going to end up. You may even have your directions right there with you. But unexpected twists and turns will leave you confused and unsettled; lost. And the pain that accompanies the experience of being “lost” can feel like hell; overwhelming, terrifying, hopeless.

Perhaps it is an addiction, or a heartbreaking marriage, or an out-of-control child. Maybe you’ve lost your job, or your health? “Will the disappointment ever end?” “Will I ever get a break?” “Will these hard times pass?”

Yes…but only if you keep going.

See the “signs”, the “landmarks”, and the “maps” of your life. What has worked for you in the past and what hasn’t? What gives you peace and what doesn’t? What affirms life, and what doesn’t.

And KEEP GOING: toward people who are trustworthy, wise, and generous; toward sources of wisdom that communicate eternal truth to you; toward a future that allows you to live your giftedness with joy.

And hell will soon enough be in your rear view mirror.