Thanks to the many of you who have provided support and encouragement with regard to my recent post about how hard things have been lately.
I still can't believe I let you all see some of the crazy stuff going on in my life, but I did it on purpose. Not everyone should see some of our deepest struggles - truth. And I do have more, believe it or not, that I probably won't ever share here on this blog - truth. But I also think it's fruitless to select only the appealing, positive things to share on social media and personal blog spaces. We are people. We all hurt, struggle, we all have dirt, and we have stories - both good and bad.
As I said before, my struggles are not the only ones. And they're not the hardest ones. But they are real. It's becoming easier to admit that truth.
After writing that blog post, reading many of your responses and digesting the information that I had acknowledged, I felt a profound ability to move forward. Naming the difficult thing is sometimes exactly what we need in order to forge ahead, and that was what I needed.
In that entry I blamed a lot of things, but (as always) I am more culpable than I acknowledged. despite the things I can't change, there is plenty that I can. I wasn't ready to admit that then, but I am now.
I earned the nickname "Messy Jessie" as a child. And though I'm not as messy on the outside as I once was, I am still on the inside. One truth, one encouragement at a time I am overcoming stains, roadblocks, snow piles, and misguided paths that I've blindly begun to tread. I'm not necessarily proud of the journey I must take, but I am overjoyed by the grace I've been given to continue onward.
So encouraged by your desire to press on and face the hard of life. I totally agree that bringing it to light, naming it, helps so much. May you press on with hope always, friend!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're talking about your very real struggles - which make my head spin, and I have plenty of my own! I think one of the biggest lies we buy into is into the idea of scarcity - that there's only enough love, mercy, grace, compassion, sympathy for really big things, or for really horrendous situations. The rest of us have to just *tough* it out. I think that when people can't (or don't want to) own their own pain, sometimes that's the root of it. Instead of scarcity, there is abundance - there is enough compassion, grace, mercy, sympathy, love for all of us, whether someone is coping with the loss of a child or the loss of a pet, with teeth-grinding or grand mal seizures... there is enough love and compassion in God's word for all of us!
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