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Life is sometimes like a lift in a multi-storey apartment block.

Occasionally, the lift lets us out on the top floor, where there is a pool and a party raging – we get to lose ourselves in the frivolity of a moment, blissfully unfocused on deeper issues.

More often, we stop at a lower level and step out into more sombre circumstances where life is dominated by everyday pressures, such as paying bills and parenting, in a finely balanced juggling act.

Life is like a lift in an apartment block. Credit: Regis Martin

Sometimes, the lift plummets and takes us below street level.

The lift opens to a dark corridor. We can see nothing, but are required to step out anyway and face the big issues of life; health problems, grief, trauma and sorrow. We stop, uncertain of which way to turn, acutely aware of how different life in the basement is to that on the upper levels.

How do we find our footing in these dark places?

The lift hums and opens again and out step our friends. Among them are people who have been to the basement before. They know the path that lies ahead through their own experience of hardship and are not daunted to travel it with us.

Other friends may not have visited the basement before, but they have come anyway; their love for us is stronger than their fear. They link their arms in ours and move forward in the darkness.

Having friends in such places makes the trials of life seem less gloomy. The silence is dispelled by the voices of our companions.

Those with faith, attuned across a lifetime to the messages taught by Christ of kindness, compassion, love and hope, may become aware of another presence in the darkness, walking with us.

The Old Testament in Psalm 23 expresses it this way: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” We are not alone in facing difficult times.

Exercise tones the body and study develops the mind. Similarly, hard times – even though they are unasked for, destabilising and concerning – have the capacity to sculpt the soul, expanding it, filling it with new understanding and compassion and love for those who also suffer.

Then, when the doors of the lift open again, we find ourselves better prepared for what we or our loved ones are presented with – whether it’s penthouse or basement or somewhere in between.

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