I am sure you've heard it said: "We live in desperate times." I've been reflecting on the subject of desperation recently and decided to examine it through the lens of Scripture, exploring both its positive and negative aspects.

It is worth starting with a fundamental question: what does desperation actually mean? Let's look at how dictionaries define it. The Merriam-Webster dictionary describes desperation as "loss of hope and surrender to despair or a state of hopelessness leading to rashness." The Cambridge dictionary offers another perspective: "Desperation is the feeling that you have when you are in such a bad situation that you are willing to take risks in order to change it."

From these definitions, we can identify several key characteristics:

• Desperation is triggered by specific situations or circumstances
• Desperation is fundamentally a feeling or emotional response
• Desperation often leads to reckless behaviour or risk-taking in an attempt to change one's situation

These characteristics seem to follow a natural progression: first comes a difficult situation, which produces unsettling feelings, and finally leads to a desperate desire to change things through risky actions. Let's examine some examples from Scripture to see whether this definition aligns with biblical principles.

One of the earliest examples of desperation appears right at the beginning of human history. In Genesis 3, we read about the serpent, described as "cunning and crafty”, approaching Eve in the garden with a pointed question: "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" 

There was clear understanding that God had mentioned only one forbidden tree, but as is often the case, the most effective way to sow doubt in someone's heart is to question the very essence of what they believe. Fast-forward to verse 8: "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden." This represents the first recorded act of desperation in Scripture. 

In line with our dictionary definition, Adam and Eve found themselves facing a situation caused by their disobedience to God's command. The feeling of desperation produced fear, and their desire to escape the situation led them to hide. Sound familiar?

In the very next chapter, we encounter another act of desperation. Adam and Eve began having children, and their first two were boys: Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer whilst Abel was a shepherd. When the time came to present offerings to the Lord, both brothers brought their gifts to God. We read that "the Lord looked with favour on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favour. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast." Cain's anger led him to kill his brother Abel, despite God's warning that his attitude would lead him into sin.

Once again, this example aligns perfectly with our definition: Cain faced a situation where his offering wasn't accepted, which produced feelings of anger that led to the reckless act of murdering his brother.

Given these examples, does this mean that desperation is entirely negative? How can we handle feelings of desperation when we can't control the circumstances that cause them in the first place? Let's examine other examples of desperation in Scripture to see if we can answer these questions.

In Luke 8:42, Jesus was walking through a crowd of people who were probably jostling and pushing to get close to him. Among them was a woman facing a truly desperate situation. She had a medical condition that caused continuous bleeding for twelve years. To understand how this woman must have felt, we need to grasp the implications of this condition beyond the obvious physical discomfort. In her community, she wouldn't have been allowed to live with or touch anyone. When walking, she had to keep a wide distance from others so they wouldn't become "unclean." Imagine living like that for twelve years! It doesn't get more desperate than that.

The woman had an internal dialogue with herself and decided to take a risk. It was a reckless decision to violate the rules about blood and touching, but she was desperate and confident that her decision would solve her problem: "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed" (Mark 5:28). 

She did exactly that, and the flow of blood stopped immediately. The moment this happened, Jesus knew that healing power had been released from him. He asked, "Who touched my clothes?" The disciples were incredulous: "What? You see people pushing and jostling to get close to us, and you're asking who touched your clothes?" (Mark 5:31, my paraphrase).

Mark 5:32-34 beautifully summarises the result of this woman's desperate act: "But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'"

Whilst this situation fits our definition perfectly, one thing becomes crystal clear: when we are desperate for God's intervention in our circumstances, we can be confident that God will respond to our faith. You might ask, "But what about the people in our lives we prayed for who still succumbed to their illnesses? Does that mean we weren't desperate enough?" I believe the answer lies in recognising that our desires are sometimes not aligned with God's will but this is a subject for another discussion.

Desperation, it seems, is neither wholly good nor entirely evil. It is a deeply human response to overwhelming circumstances. The key difference lies not in the feeling itself, but in where we direct our desperation and how we respond to it.

When desperation drives us away from God as it did with Adam and Eve, or with Cain, it leads to destructive choices that compound our problems rather than solve them. Fear, anger, and reckless self-reliance become our guides, often resulting in consequences far worse than our original difficulties.

When desperation drives us towards God however, as with the bleeding woman, it becomes a catalyst for miraculous transformation. Her desperation didn't make her reckless in a destructive sense; rather, it made her bold in faith. She was willing to risk social rejection and religious censure because she believed that touching Jesus would change everything. And it did.

Perhaps the question isn't whether we're desperate, but what we're desperate for and where we turn in our desperation. In a world that often feels chaotic and uncertain, we will all face moments that test our resolve and challenge our hope. The choice before us is simple yet profound: will our desperation lead us to hide from God, lash out at others, or take matters entirely into our own hands? Or will it drive us to reach out in faith, believing that the God who sees our struggles also has the power to transform them?

The woman with the issue of blood teaches us that sometimes our greatest breakthroughs come not when we have it all together, but when we're desperate enough to risk everything for the possibility of healing. In those moments of deepest need, desperation can become the bridge between our human limitations and God's limitless power.

After all, we do live in desperate times but that is exactly where God's grace shines brightest.