Question: I’m afraid I will be swallowed up by a recent loss of mine. I feel so alone, so in the dark. What can I do about these tormenting thoughts that are telling me, “It just isn’t worth it!”?

Answer: You are not alone. You have not been abandoned. But there are forces that want you to believe you are… certain dark, despairing energies whose only task is to convince you that God has separated Himself from you. And these evil spirits succeed far better than is known. Every time we fall prey to feeling sorry for ourselves or express anger out of our spiritual frustration, or weep in defeat and accept depressed states within ourselves as ourselves, these dark forces have won. But it does not have to be this way. It must not be this way. We always have the power, regardless of how powerless we may feel, to hold our hearts and minds before God and to give to Him our weakness, our shame, or whatever it may be. We cling mistakenly to what is ourselves, and this kind of spiritual error can only occur in the darkness within us that the darkness gets us to accept as being the only alternative. But we can do better than despair — far better than giving up — as long as we fight for ourselves by holding on to what we know is true, instead of allowing what is untrue to convince us that we’re alone. God never stops loving, never stops giving Himself, any more than the sun could stop shining. So if we feel cold, surrounded by darkness, it’s because of where we are standing. Any time we see this, we can and will move back into the life-giving Light.