Hard Things

The past few weeks have felt a bit like my life sucker punched me, stole my milk money and broke my glasses. As I sit here, a little dazed and confused, catching my breath and trying to gather the pieces, I’ve got to ask myself. “Hey! What gives?” 

Friends, the truth is: Life is messy. 

All too often, we get smacked straight between the eyes by life’s twists and turns. 

As I contemplate this reality, I am aware that I have a choice here.

I can sit and sulk and tell myself how unfair it all is. I can convince myself that I deserve more and how much better others have it. I can wonder how I will ever recover. I can crawl under the covers and isolate myself in my burdens and wounds. 

Or…

I can have a good cry. Stand up and take my case to the King. 

I love how many times Treasa shares the story with us of the persistent woman in Luke 18. Remember the woman who would not stop bringing her request for vengeance to the ungodly judge? Because of her persistence, the ungodly judge finally took up her case. I thought of this passage this week as I cried over life’s unfairness. As I looked the story up in Luke, I was struck by a verse I’d not really looked at before, in fact it’s the verse right before the story of the persistent woman. The King James version pierced straight to my heart;

Luke 18: 1 “And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;” 

I don’t know about you, but when troubles arise, my first reaction is not to pray. It’s to faint. I want to crawl under the covers, with Netflix and a tub of rocky road ice cream. I just want to pretend the problem doesn’t exist! That is spiritual FAINTING! *enter epic swoon onto a dramatic daybed* 

Friends, we’re not called to a life of FAINTING! Can you imagine, the army of God fainting! No, we are called to fight! We fight by getting mad at the right things, and to bring our burden, frustrations and pain to the True Judge, He will always hear our case. 

What are you carrying today? Are you like me? Standing in the boxing ring with bruises, breaks and a bloody lip, staggering around unable to catch a clear view of the enemy? Let this word be like a cool drink of Gatorade to your weary bones, “Help is on the way. Hold on just a little longer.” Let it sink in, let it spur you on. One more fight. One more hard push. Don’t give up!

I give my kids this little speech when they are overwhelmed with a problem, we call it the hard things speech. Today, I need to tell it to my own heart and perhaps yours too.

“You can do hard things. I know this, because I’ve seen you do hard things over, and over again. God has put you right here, so He can teach you how to do hard things with Him.” So, slow down, take a deep breath and take the next step. 

You’ve got this.

- Erin Sabo