From Despair To Hope Series

Paul Aurandt tells the story of one of the fastest rising young singers back

in the early 50's. He was called the Romantic Voice Of America. Teenage

girls would give anything to see him, but he never appeared anywhere. He

was not even seen in photographs. He was strictly a radio voice. Soon KFRC

in San Francisco was flooded with teenage fan mail begging for signed photos,

but none were ever sent. The golden voice was heard, but the person behind

it was never seen.

One day a young girl went into the studio looking for a glimpse of her

idol. When she saw him she was overwhelmed, and not with awe, but with

laughter. The Romantic Voice of America was 5 ft. 10 and weighed 260 lbs.

He was so embarrassed by her laughter that he went on a 4 month grueling

diet. Because of that embarrassment he became fit enough to be seen in

public, and he went on to become popular on television. By being crushed

into despair he was able to rise to the heights of stardom. This young man is

the now well-known Merv Griffin.

His experience reveals that there is often a link between the lows of life

and the highs. The lows, or the failures, are often the motivating factors in

our reaching for the heights and success. Had he never been crushed down

by that negative experience he may never have been moved to change and

climb to new heights. We see this process going on in the life of Paul as he

records for all the world to see the depths of despair which forced him the

heights of hope. Paul has been as low as a Christian can get, and he has been

as high as a Christian can get. He knows the depth to which a Christian can

sink in negative feelings, and he knows the heights in which they can soar in

positive feelings.

Paul opens up and shares this intimate view of his own emotions, for he

knows it will be a comfort to many, and God knew it would be a comfort to

millions all through history. Christians need to know it is not a sign of lack of

faith, or that God has abandoned you, because you feel sunk in a pit of

despair. It has happened to the best of God's family, and is, therefore, an

acceptable state of emotion event though it is not a state where you want to

settle down and live. The proper response to this low state is to be motivated

to climb to a higher level of faith and hope. We want to look at these two

levels of life that Paul experienced so we can learn also to cope with the

depths and climb to the heights. Let's look first at-

I. THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR.

The Greek word Paul uses here to describe his low point means-to have no

outlet whatever. Paul felt trapped with no way to escape. It was a hopeless

situation, and there was nothing he could do. It looked like death was

inevitable, and there was no other choice but to die. Paul was at a dead end.

The enemy was bearing down on him and there was no exist. The pressure

was great that it was beyond his ability to endure it. Paul was admitting that

he had come to the end of his rope, and he could not longer hang on. This is a

terrible place to be, but God had Paul share this so that Christians might not

be superficial in their judgments of Christians who reach this level of despair.

Many Christians who have lived sheltered lives, as many of us have, do

not know the depths to which life can push the emotions. We have all felt

depressed but despair goes deeper than depression. It is the feeling of utter

hopelessness. It is a very dangerous state of mind, for this is what leads

people to take their own life. It is the feeling that made Job wish he had never

been born. It is the feeling that made Solomon feel that everything was vanity

and totally meaningless. It is a theme very common in literature.

John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress has a scene where Great-Heart has a

major battle with Giant Despair who had as many lives as a cat. In other

words, despair is a hard foe to get rid of. John Milton in Paradise Lost has

Satan cry out in despair, "Which way shall I fly-infinite wrath and infinite

despair? Which way I fly is hell; myself is hell; and in the lowest deep a lower

deep still threatening to devour me opens wide, to which the hell I suffer

seems a heaven."

The lost world has picked up on the despair philosophy of Satan, and it has