I'm posting this here to try and avoid the typical responses you'd get in GD, hoping to glean some advice from others of faith (regardless of what that faith may be).

This past year or so has been the hardest of my life.  I'm sure a lot of it has to do with my own mental hangups and perceptions, but in the last year, my health has seriously deteriorated, I've lost my job, my Dad was seriously injured in a car accident, lost all my friends, lost my hunting lease, etc. etc.

Almost to the day a year ago, my Dad was almost killed on his way to work by a 17 year-old girl who was high on Xanax (she was killed on impact).  Not to make his situation mine, I'm just giving background.  It seems like from that day forward everything began to fall apart.  I had to help my mom with a lot of the paperwork, insurance, and be at the hospital a lot.  My dad has endured 6 surgeries in the meantime (still can't walk) and had to retire from a 60-70K a year job.  Myself and my siblings have had to help a lot with upkeep of his home, getting him to appointments, etc. (not that i mind doing any of this at all)

Shortly after his accident, due to apparent inattention to some long-term buddies, I was kicked off my hunting lease (junior-high type retaliation if that makes sense).  Hunting was literally my only escape, and I haven't set foot in the woods since with the exception of collecting my gear from the property.  My child and I spent a lot of time in the woods together, and I miss it like crazy.  Like I said, it was my therapy and I enjoyed it immensely.

I also lost a good job making good money for my area.  Since then, I haven't been able to find anything remotely approaching a good salary, even though I have a degree and YEARS of experience with long-term job history.

On top of all this, I've developed severe arthritis in my spine and most of my joints, and every day is a lovely experience of pain and stiffness.  I've pretty much lost all my motivation to do much of anything, other than getting my kids where they need to go and general household stuff (I do have some pride left).

So, while it seems like I'm whining (and maybe I am) and have made a tl;dr type of post, I'm just looking for some advice on how to get back on the wagon.  I feel like God has abandoned me, which the mature part of my mind knows isn't the case but the human weakness part of me feels every day.  Couple that with all the darkness in the world right now, and it just feels like "it's not worth it."  

If you've ever experienced some life stressors of this level, what did you do to keep your faith strong and get back in the game?  That's exactly the phrase I've used when talking to my wife - I just feel like I'm "out of the game of life" and can't get back in.  Literally all my friends have disappeared from my life.  Some on purpose as stated above, some just busy with their lives (and I get that).  I mean, other than a free message board, I can't ask anybody for advice.  Family doesn't get it - I come from the school of life that men are never supposed to have weak moments or crises, you just suck it up and move on.  I've tried, but I just can't get my confidence and faith back it seems.

I still consider myself a believer, but I tell you, my faith has never been weaker.  I went from praying multiple times daily to maybe having a conversation with God 1-2 times a week.  And it's not that I'm even placing the blame on God, it's just more of a "well, why bother" type response.  

Any advice/suggestions?  I'm sure I'll get flamed, but I gave the Reader's Digest version of events.  In short, life went from good/tolerable to crap really quick, and I can't seem to get any traction.  Instead of looking to the future with good thoughts, I'm living day to day and almost just waiting to punch my ticket.  Not suicidal, just don't care.

watching my brother go though hell to lose weight to make it into gastric bypass surgery, only to be hit with cancer, fight through that only to have a "cardiac event" during his last fucking chemo treatment and never come out of the coma.
Pulling my mother away from his dead body
watching my mother sufer through losing another child

(next year) taking my mother into the ER for a "stomach ache" the ended up being a massive infection that had already eaten away most of her upper GI tract, she died at midnight that night


Holidays are a fucking JOY around here. My sister lost her job last week, she was the caretaker of brother and mother, now she has nothing to do except drink and take prescription drugs.

Dang man, I'm sorry.  Not looking forward to the holidays myself.  Stay strong.

Start praising the Lord. And thanking Him for the Cross.
Its the only cure for depression.

I am in my own "wonderful" situation right now. Things I have learned:

I don't have to go out and seek the will of God, I wake up in the middle of it every morning. Since my daily circumstance is the will of God for me at the  moment, I shouldn't complain about it. "Not my will, but thy will be done". The will of God is not unjust, so accept it and be thankful for it.

I can walk in the Spirit, or I can walk in the flesh. If I am walking in the Spirit, I can handle anything. If I am walking in the flesh, pretty much anything can overwhelm me.

2 Corinthians 1:7  And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.
8  For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
9  But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead:

I kind of suspect that part of the reason I am in this stressful situation is to prepare me for what is about to happen on the world stage.

Thanks for responding.  Sometimes I think that myself, other times I just feel like it's all over for me.  I need to spend more time in the Word.  Again, I appreciate it.

No real advice, but I'll include you in my prayers.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed when we are struggling through as many things as you are.  GST gave some great feedback, but I don't necessarily agree with his last sentence - sorry, GST!

I do agree that you need to get back into the Word - you might consider starting with Psalm 22, which is what Jesus quoted when he was dying on the cross.  It is a song of lament in suffering and abandonment, which ends in praising God and trusting in Him.  The next few Psalms may be helpful as well.  One of my favorites when I'm feeling disconnected from God is Psalm 139, it reminds me that HE created me, knows me intimately and always has His hand on my shoulder.

The problem of human suffering is something that men have been struggling to understand since the beginning of humanity.  There are many good books available in addition to Scripture - for example,  one that they gave us for this year's classes (Hospital ministry) is this: Why do we suffer?    I haven't read the whole thing yet, but it seems pretty good to me so far.   It's only 145 pages, and is pretty readable.

As I told my daughter the other day, when you're struggling in a dark place, always remember, it WILL get better.  I'll be praying for you.

I won't flame you. I will keep you in my prayers.



Sometimes life hands us CRUSHING events that makes us question even our sanity.



The Book of Job describes almost every event we can encounter and who is truly behind the suffering. I have to tell you for years I would begin reading Job and for years I couldn't get past the losses and suffering he endured.  IT was to test his faith, and the MOST IMPORTANT part of of the book was when God began to ask Job all those questions ( that we struggle with ourselves) at the end of the book of Job. Job's friends where applying a dose of peer pressure and Job questioned God. One day I finally made it past the heart breaking first part and got to God's answer and He started that encounter with Job this way...
Who is this who darkens counsel

















    (Put yourself in Job's shoes here.  "Prepare yourself like a man"... Any father who says that is getting ready to impart some wisdom on someone he cares about. And God didn't ask Job 1 question.. he asked 70. that is a divine whooping)   The one that got me was this...     'Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop '? 12"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, And caused the dawn to know its place, 13That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, And the wicked be shaken out of it?                                                    
This is just a starting point to set the ground work for how much you are loved. Read the gospel accounts of  Passion. Every single ailment or mental anxiety we can encounter in this life in every single way... Jesus Christ suffered from His agony through His Crucifixion. While the gospels do a great job of describing the physical suffering, if you contemplate WHO Jesus IS and who Crucified Him, you can pretty much cover all the emotional and heart crushing things as well. All ailments we could ever encounter to our physical body can be summed up there is well including cancer. By all rights Christ should not have been able to outlast the scourging. Jesus was abandoned by those He loved, betrayed by someone in his inner circle, (The Crucifixion of His Heart)  tortured by knowing what was coming (The Crucifixion of his sound mind)  they lied about Him (The crucifixion of His character and credibility) He was spat upon by the very people he taught and preached to in the temples (The Crucifixion of his Social status) He took on humility instead of power.  There is nothing you can ever endure that Christ won't understand and see you through.
If you allow these things to steal your ONE wealth... your faith...then you have lost truly lost everything. Fight for it.
Sometimes to appreciate our faith we have to lose everything to see what we truly have. And in those moments look around. My guess is you won't have to look too far to find someone who has it far worse. If you put your energy there you will see you are getting by.
I will remember you and your sweet family in my prayers.
 

Thank you everyone, I appreciate the thoughts and the time you took to respond.  I've been in prayer this weekend and while it's going to take a while to get back on track, I'm trying to face the week with a better attitude.

I have been on the bottom and given up hope before. Turning to Faith and surrounding myself with people who love me was the answer.

If you want a change in life and the way you see things lookup Faithwalk mid south or Faithwalkjackson.org . Truly a event that can show you the way and change your outlook on many things. It brought myself and my marriage back from the brink. If you need a sponsor and feel it will help IM me.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Yes OP, I have been there, and the message in THIS is what got me through. (Specifically the 3:56 mark.

For me it was the death of 3 close family members in a 6 month period, a disabled son, and a promised work position taken away. The inauguration in January of that year didn't provide any hope either.

Seriously though, "every one of us has times when we need to know things will get better."

Remember, OP, that the Lord will not allow something to be thrown at you that you and He can't handle together.

Also remember that many are giving their lives this day rather than give up their faith in Christ. You're doing fine.

Hang in there.

Yep, I think I've been waiting on some great revelation that things will go back to "normal" and I'm not getting that answer in "my" time.

Thanks again for the encouragement, I've been down with a BAD case of bronchitis this weekend so I've been unplugged.