Alhamdulillah, the imam chose very carefully what he recited today. 

In the first rakah he recited one of the well known verses 
'....Surely in the rememberance of Allah do hearts find comfort' 

And in the second rakah he recited the opposite scenario 
'Those that turn away from the rememberance of Allah , will have a miserable life....' 

The journey of the heart never ends , it's stuck in a continuous state of beginning. The heart jumps from comfort to discomfort untill it is caught up by death. And that is the reality that we all face. 

The choices are clear, as AmritS said in one of her reflections it's a constant pull and push. Sometimes we need that pull , and at other times we need that push. The pull comes from the hope in the mercy of Allah , and the push comes from the fear of displeasing Allah.

Today it felt like I needed a push, 

As the imam continued he reached ayah 34 in surah Ra'd speaking of the punishment of the disbelievers. 

What got me was the mention of the intensity of punishment of hell. Imagine the worst punishment of the world , that is nothing compared to what is in store for the people of hell. 

When we think of punishment we think of physical pain, but there's another form of pain that can be greater, and that is emotional pain. 

What will be the mental state of those people? 
The feeling of complete isolation, failure, rejection, worthlessness, betrayal, deprivation from the Mercy of Allah, self hate and more.

Any one of these in this world can paralyze a person's mind and drag him into depression, imagine 
these all at once. 

With all this in mind , as Sh. Suhaib Webb said ' it is Haram to give up on the Mercy of Allah' 

If you read all this so far and have mixed emotions then know that all these are different feelings of the same heart, that flips and turns. Just like a fish outside of the water, it only relaxes untill it is returned to the ocean. And the heart also, will only find comfort when it returns to the ocean of knowledge that is the Quran, containing the rememberance of Allah. 

إلا بذكر الله تطمئن القلوب

Jazak Allah khairun I needed to read this again 