FEATURE: It’s Already Getting Better

Let’s not skirt around it. Life is hard. Life is mostly wonderful, and beautiful, and full of those moments that are so intricately woven together, you know they can’t be an accident. But sometimes, life is hard.

Sometimes it feels like everything is crashing down…. work, friends, family, relationships, finances, health. Other times, it’s just one of these things that’s in disarray and despite everything else in our life going well, that one thing can make it seem like the world is caving in. 

I don’t know about you, but when I’m in a season of disarray, I automatically want to fix it, to figure out where I’m missing the mark, to dig myself out. But this can be a dangerous place, because then when I can’t figure it out on my own, I feel like I’m doing something wrong or I’m not living up to some invisible standard of life. 

Sometimes bad stuff just happens. Sometimes bad stuff happens because we made bad decisions. Sometimes we can fix it, sometimes we can’t. But what would happen if we embraced it? You’ve heard it before, we can’t control everything that happens, but we can control our response. 

This is easier said than done.

It’s never easy to look at difficult situations and find the good in them. It’s difficult to ride out the painful seasons with grace. But that’s exactly what we’re called to do. 

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

(Matthew 11:28-30)

Walk with me. Work with me. Watch how I do it. There’s a rhythm to that. Walk with me. Work with me. Watch how I do it. Can you feel it? 

Here’s the thing. We were never called to walk out these difficult moments alone. We have the Creator of the Universe walking alongside of us, providing us a perfect example of how to make it through tough circumstances. And not only that, but when we walk with him, he helps carry the load. How crazy is that? 

So how do we do that? I think it comes by honestly reminding ourselves of a few things.  First, knowing exactly where we’re at and admitting it, to ourselves, to our trusted community. There’s a freedom that simply comes with speaking out whatever we’re facing and knowing we no longer carry it alone. Then, we remind ourselves of who God is. His character is unchangeable, his word is unshakable, his promises everlasting. He has never failed us. We lift our eyes. When we go through dark seasons, it’s easy to continually look inward and forget that there are so many hurting people around us. Everyone has a story, everyone is fighting. We may find others to walk on the journey with us. It’s not going to last forever. The season may be dark, and in no way am I making light of ANYTHING you might be facing, but just know it’s not going to last forever. There will always be a dichotomy of good and bad on this side of eternity, and sometimes they run alongside each other, but we have a hope that goes beyond our situation.

Just remember you may not be where you thought you’d be or where you want to be, but don’t discredit how far you’ve come. You’re doing better than you think you are.