In Despair – Cry Out to the Lord – living life, following Jesus, From the Edges.

Crying Out from the Depths
Pastor Calvin Cook –
September 23, 2025

Scripture: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and He answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help, and You listened to my cry.” — Jonah 2:2

I wasn’t going to do a devotional this morning. Gail and I are traveling home from a few days away. The travel became long because of some detours and traffic stopping or slowing adding extra time to our trip. We found ourselves, tired, frustrated, in a strange place, and just too tired to press on. We stopped at a not so good hotel, and we will just leave it there.

As I prepared for sleep, I was very frustrated, my foot was hurting, I was upset. As I did my night time wind down asking myself “how did I stay connected and how did I try things on my own way.” The Holy Spirit spoke and reminded me that I chose a way that I knew was not good. This is of course in traveling – instead of going a way that would take longer – I chose the shorter what I thought would be easier way and here I sit.

Iin times like this I often pray the prayer from Jonah 2 –

Jonah’s prayer came from a place of deep desperation. Swallowed by the great fish, surrounded by darkness and despair, he had nowhere else to turn but to God. Yet even there—in the depths of the sea, in the lowest place—God heard his cry. But the question remains : Why do we wait for things to become so despairing before we turn to God. – Why do we not listen? We seek God’s guidance but yet don’t receive the instruction.

Like Jonah, our troubled times often feel like being swallowed up. Circumstances press in, hope seems gone, and we feel cut off from God’s presence. But Jonah’s story reminds us: no depth is too deep, no darkness too dark, no trouble too great for the Lord to hear. God is always near, ready to rescue, restore, and set us back on solid ground.

When Jonah remembered the Lord and prayed, hope entered the hopelessness. His words turned from despair to trust: “But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to You. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” (Jonah 2:9)

In a few hours – we will be back home – (we hope and pray) we will return to the safety of our own home, going back to life as normal, but hopefully we have learned something.

When we go off on our own way, like Jonah when he did not follow God’s direction, we will find ourselves lost, alone, tired, confused, in despair. But…. the good news is God will hear our prayer, answer it, and we will be delivered to the place we really need to be – in the care of God.