Are you at your wits’ end?

Are you troubled by broken relationships, financial pressures, frightening health issues, stubborn habits, wayward children, an unbearable workload, or the incomprehensible culture we live in?

There are plenty of reasons to be at your wits’ end. I’m not sure I am exactly there, but I’m pretty sure I can see it from here…  

If you are not sure what I am talking about, I am very happy for you. But if you, like me right now, are struggling inside or out, I want you to know what I am referring to. Here is my working definition of the location of wits’ end.

“If you say you are at your wits’ end, you are emphasizing that you are so worried and exhausted by problems or difficulties that you do not know what to do next.” (Collins dictionary)

Does that help you assess where you are? If you are at your wits’ end, please rest assured you are in good company. And I am not referring to me!

Psalm 107 tells stories of many characters who have gone before us who were there. Check out this verse. It is describing folks, just like us, who were facing fears, brokenness, confusion, pain—any number of raw life experiences—that had brought them to their knees, to Wits’ End.

They were at their wits’ end. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. (Psalm 107:27-28)

Please read on. I love this little poem from my devotional, Streams in the Desert
 
Are you standing at “Wits’ End Corner,”
    Christian, with troubled brow?
Are you thinking of what is before you,
And all you are bearing now?
Does all the world seem against you,
And you in the battle alone?
Remember—at “Wits’ End Corner”
Is just where God’s power is shown.
 
Are you standing at “Wits’ End Corner,”
Blinded with wearying pain,
Feeling you cannot endure it,
You cannot bear the strain,
Bruised through the constant suffering,
Dizzy, and dazed, and numb?
Remember—at “Wits’ End Corner”
Is where Jesus loves to come.
 
Are you standing at “Wits’ End Corner”?
Your work before you spread,
All lying begun, unfinished,
And pressing on heart and head,
Longing for strength to do it,
Stretching out trembling hands?
Remember—at “Wits’ End Corner”
The Burden-Bearer stands.
 
Are you standing at “Wits’ End Corner”?
Then you’re just in the very spot
To learn the wondrous resources
Of Him who fails you not:
No doubt to a brighter pathway
Your footsteps will soon be moved,
But only at “Wits’ End Corner”
Is the “God who is able” proved.
 
                      Antoinette Wilson
 
I hope you will consider reading this entire Psalm. In it, the congregation is called on to confess God’s covenant faithfulness, affirming his goodness and love toward His people in delivering them from all kinds of adversity and trouble that they have experienced in exile. We can relate.

The ending of the psalm, according to the Zondervan NIV Study Bible, “transforms it from a hymn of thanksgiving to a wisdom psalm because the righteous will become “wise” by studying the acts of “the great love of the LORD” in the affairs of humankind.”

We would be wise, too, to consider His ways. In days of old, when the Psalms were written, He had gathered his people from all directions, wherever they were found, in whatever situation they were in.

In other words, He met them at Wits’ End Corner—with all His goodness, greatness, graciousness, and glory. They discovered He was all they needed.
He was enough.

HE was enough. He is enough!

And, dear one, He will meet you and me there and we will find that to be so very true.
Will I see you there?

He’s waiting for both of us.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; (Psalm 34:18,19)