Keeping it real

Has 2022 kicked the ever- lovin’-stuffin’ out of you? Yeah… me too.

But here’s the thing. There is some good news. We have choices, y’all.

Even when circumstances seem bleak and exhausting and impossible and overwhelming and unfair, we can choose.

Life guarantees health struggles and financial setbacks and relational disappointments and hurtful, mean-spirited people. You’re not alone in those. I’ve seen and felt so much suffering going on. I bet you have, too. It’s in us and all around us. Suffering is inevitable.

Is your life looking like something you never thought possible due to death, disease, divorce, disaster, decisions, disruptions, discouragement?

Are your weight, your blood pressure, your blood sugar going up ….and your health and hope going down?

Has your current income set you back so far that you’ve had to pick up a weekend side hustle to cover basic necessities or your child’s monthly prescriptions and medical needs?

Are your feelings and reputation scorched and withered from the judging eyes and gossipy tongues of those who profess to know better? Those that don’t really know you or your circumstances at all have used their words to tear you down, not build you up.

Did you or someone you love make some regrettable choices that ran you into a deep, dark ditch?

Are you sitting beside the bed of a loved one, begging for them to be healed and whole and alive? Maybe you’ve just been diagnosed and you’re terrified of what’s going to happen.

Are you fighting in court for your kids and their future, their happiness, safety and security? Maybe you are begging for God’s vindication and justice?

Keeping it real means that we are going to point out that NO ONE is exempt from sufferings. No matter what their picture perfect posts look like from the outside….. they have their pain points too. They may be living them right this very minute, just like you and just like me.

Keeping it real means being open to vulnerability. To being willing to step out of your comfort zone and share the message that was placed on your heart… putting it out there to be received by the ones who needed it or criticized by the snarky naysayers, either way. To be of service to others both through and in spite of your pain is a tangible way to work through it.

Yes….Life brings pain and lessons and hardships and loss and struggle and regret. But, still, we have the choice of what to do with them. They can feel too hot to hold. The ditch can seems too deep to see the light at the top. But….

Even though the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy, we can still choose to get up and fight back with all our might. Or, we can lie there on the mat and eat the dust of self pity, regret, bitterness and unforgiveness…. Choose. It’s one or the other. You can’t fight and surrender at the same time.

The enemy says you’ve messed up too much. He says your situation is too hopeless and too broken to fix. He says you’re not capable of a better job or better life or better self-care or better health or better choices. You’re too old, too tired, too far gone to do anything good or productive with your life.

But, God says,

Get up. Pick up your mat. And walk. Be healed. Stop lying there feeling sorry for yourself. He says he will fight for you, if you let him. He says he’s the God of impossibilities. He’s says to Just. Trust. Him. He says the righteous person will live by his faithfulness.

I choose to take him at his word. I choose to trust the God of forgiveness and loving kindness and possibilities…. to get up and fight. You can choose to also. No matter how deep and dark the ditch.

Is this a random plea for help or pity or rubber-necking curiosity? No way. It’s just me, a fellow struggler, throwing out the rope of hope to ANY friend in need. Tie it on. Let’s let God wench us out of the ditch together…. Just trusting Him to do it in His own time, in His own way, while we faithfully continue on, waiting on His answers.