Man's Only End

Man's only end is despair. 

Regarding humankind I do not know if I have found a more fitting description of Man. Our only end.is despair. The luckiest of us have little that happens to cause anguish, yet if any of those answered honestly, they would answer and speak of despair. 

This is because we have only one end when we are alone, when we are missing a Piece of ourselves that we only end in despair.

Tonight I faced worse RA sickness than I have in some weeks. I knew my RA was building, although I can't even say how. I went to sleep knowing that the next day (yesterday) was to be a day of worse illness. 
I was again on the couch in misery as I have been many other times. It came vaguely to my mind that to be this ill is to despair, to feel uselessness, to feel the destruction of oneself. To feel this ill is to sit and wish death as an escape of sickness. (Fear not! I am not suicidal.) To be at an end which is despair. 

Then, as I read for the hundredth time Joni, I came across her mentioning of this phrase. At the time she was facing anew the knowledge of the permanence of her paralysis--- and facing a time of shunning God (to an extent) as she read "enlightened" authors trying to make sense and use of her accident. 
No matter who we are and what we face, we have a drive to be useful. We had it set in us at creation to care for the animals and garden...and be in constant communication with God. Without God, man's end is despair. 
Without God, without honoring God with what we accomplish daily, the world is despair, no matter how bright. With God, the world becomes as if we switched from black and white films to the movie Avatar, suddenly bright with colors and overwhelming views. 

Psalms 19 is amazing. It speaks of Creation literally shouting out the glory of God, even without being able to speak. That wonder, that amazingness, is what makes our life no longer one of despair. For if broken creation shouts still of His majesty, how much more will we speak and shout of it when He fills in the gaping chasm in our being?

We may face terrible illness, saddening beyond belief situations, and other trials big and small. With God, our life is not despair. God gives us a more fulfilling, despairless, fearless, wonderful alive life in Him than we would ever think to be able to create. After all, He never changes. We change daily. How could we ever manage to get away from despair when our moment to moment choices end in destruction?