I have discovered that a key to escape the gravitational pull of our emotional black hole and to avoid the devastating effects of the delusions it creates is to internalize the truth that each one of us is a precious son or daughter of God with infinite innate worth and potential. This is part of the one great truth: that there is no limit to the love God feels for each soul individually. He offers to heal our souls through His infinite grace and mercy. None of us can sink so low that He cannot reach down and lift us up out of our trials and misery. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16–17).
We find God’s love by listening to and following that voice inside us that tells us what is right and true and by looking for His influence in the world and the people around us. As we follow that voice and get closer to God, we feel more of the love He freely offers us. His love fills our emotional vacuum to the extent we are willing to accept it by making room for it in our hearts.
Ages before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah prophesied: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . . and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
The great Creator of the whole universe was born as a vulnerable human baby. He was not born in a palace but in the humblest circumstance imaginable to a young destitute peasant couple who were all alone in a distant land where they sought shelter in a dark, cold and smelly stable. Jesus understands each of us in our trials. Emanuel means God is with us. That is the message of his birth. God truly is with us and is intimately involved in the details of our lives. Jesus was fully human and experienced all the joys and pain of human experience. He knows what it feels like to be hungry, sick, injured, and exhausted. He experienced the heartache that accompanies the loss of loved ones. He felt the sharp pain of betrayal. He knows what is feels like to be falsely accused. He knows what it is like to be abandoned by all his friends and to be left utterly alone as he suffered excruciating pain. Jesus literally has felt our pain, and through his stripes he can heal us.
Isaiah prophesied of Jesus’s life and his suffering for you and me. He wrote:
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
(Isaiah 53:2–12)
Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.All these specific prophesied details were fulfilled through Jesus’s life and death. He offers us the means to escape our emotional black holes and delusions. Jesus offers to heal our souls through his love.
Feeling and knowing that we are accepted and loved by God empowers us to endure life’s trials. Nothing is insurmountable after we feel God’s love in our hearts. We realize that He is in charge, knows our situation, and will look after our eternal well-being. After we die, we will enter into the rest of the Lord as a result of our expanded vision and understanding that Christ really has it all handled, and it is not all up to us individually. We just need to trust God, let Him do what he wants to do with us, and we will be just fine.
To the extent that we focus on love, light, truth, and basic goodness, and strive to incorporate these characteristics of God into our being, we will be able to endure the trials of life. Our knowledge that we are doing the Lord’s will gives us the faith necessary to endure. Much of our faith is actually a gift from God, which we receive after we exercise a particle of faith by demonstrating our desire to follow Him. The Lord then blesses us with His peace as we turn to Him and rely on Him. Our peace and assurance continue to grow while we demonstrate our willingness to accept God’s gift of love and faith. This is the comfort God gives to all of the true followers of Christ.
The gravity of black holes is so strong that it does not allow light to escape, thereby obscuring the reality of the black hole’s existence. Similarly, people often become confused, stumble, and fall when they walk in the dark. Conversely, shining light on a subject brings clarity and dispels misconceptions and delusions. Humans can’t see in the dark, but God can. Indeed, He is the light, and there is no darkness in Him. Just as the light of the new star at his birth pointed the way for wise men to find the baby Jesus, his light continues to lead wise men to truth and freedom. Consequently, as we seek the light of Christ today, it dissolves our delusions so we can become free to live a normal life and experience the full range of emotions in a beautiful, healthy, fulfilling way.
Christ truly is the way, the truth, and the light, (John 14:6), and those who accept his invitation to come unto him experience the freedom to enjoy life without guilt and resentment. We can sample the ecstasy of communion with the Divine here and now. We do not need to wait for the hereafter to be blessed through God’s love. We can enjoy personal peace and comfort today. God’s love is the power that sets us free.
