Start with Despair

I'm reading John Piper's mini-book When the Darkness Will Not Lift, right now, and I just came to a passage that is becoming quite revolutionary.

"Bunyan went home rejoicing when he saw this his righteousness was outside himself. It was Jesus Christ. I pray that this will be your experience too. Where should you start? Start at the easiest place for those in darkness. Start with despair. Despair of finding an answer in yourself. I pray that you will cease from all efforts to look inside yourself for the rescue you need. I pray that you will do what only desperate people can do, namely, cast yourself on Christ. May you say to him, 'you are my only hope. I have no righteousness in myself. I am overwhelmed with sin and guilt. I am under the wrath of God. My conscience condemns me, and makes me miserable. I am perishing. Darkness is all about me. Have mercy upon me. I trust you.' . . . The light will rise in your darkness in due time. God will hold onto you )Jude 24). You will make it. The glory is coming. In the meantime [and this is possibly my favorite verse] 'this slightly momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to things that are seen, but to things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.' (2 Cor. 4:17-18)"

It's easy to try and find hope in myself. It's even easier to pursue some sort of intellectual enlightenment, believing that it will be my hope.  The only deserving object of our hope is Christ, who was crucified and resurrected.  All others will fall short, leading only to despair.