Desperation is not of the father

To be fair, most of us really do not understand what it is to be filled with desperation. Desperation by its core definition is a complete lack of hope accompanied by a surrender to a growing sense of despair.

Desperation is more than the need to alleviate the midafternoon caffeine craving. Even with faint hope, there is a drive, even if it is a small one, to make things better, even if better is a few hours on the weekend to escape. When you're desperate, there are no weekends. There are no hours. There is no hope. Desperation is giving in to the feeling that it will never get better. Ever.

In one of the most interesting passages in Scripture, the Lord led a man by the name of Ezekiel into a valley full of dried, brittle bones that had for years been bleached by the sun. What was once the site of a great many valiant and vibrant warriors was now a resting place of hopelessness. In the valley the Lord asked Ezekiel an odd question, "Can these bones live?"

What do you mean can they live? There is no life in them. In fact, this is the end of life. The bones are dried, brittle, cut off from each other spread throughout the valley. There is no hope. Yet the prophet answered in a way that advocated him from the question, "Only you know." Then came a miracle of bone coming to bone, sinews growing, muscle tissue, skin and finally breathe causing these bones to live.

These bones represented a group of people who had been stripped of hope and cut off from each other. God, who is in the business of restoration, was going to bring them back together. Taking what was once vibrant but over time had dulled, he breathes new life into it.

When God restores, he doesn't just make the old resemble the original. He breaths new life into it. With him no matter how desperate the situation seems, desperation is not an option. Restoration is not about living in the past and never embracing the present. Restoration is about taking that which is broken and tarnished and diminished and reworking it with new life and new purpose and new joy.

Restoration is an art form that rests in the hands of the master.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.