There have been a plethora of things that I have been learning lately- to name one in particular: optimism VS. Hope. This is something that has been a recurring theme that I’ve been trying to practice lately.
As some of you may know, I deeply enjoy being able to be of encouragement to those around me, and I really like being able to be optimistic in most situations (if not all).. For some reason I really find it heart wrenching when someone is going through a hard time, and I don’t present a different, more positive perspective to the table. This is definitely a downfall of mine. I have been finding out more and more lately that it is OK to sit in a hard situation and recognize it as such. It is OK to let someone know that their situation is hard, and to just be a listening ear. It is OK to mourn with someone when they are hurting. All of these things used to be foreign concepts to me. I am no where near perfect in this area of my life, but I am reminded of what Jesus teaches us when Lazarus dies:
John 11:35- Jesus wept.
Super plain, simple, but something that has been a challenge for me to grasp. Jesus didn’t weep behind closed doors, or to himself, but rather He was in the families company and He had genuinely cared for Lazarus. Jesus considered Lazarus a friend and when he had died, Jesus was deeply touched, and therefore, He wept.
For me- I want to provide comfort, or reassure people that everything will be OK, but what I’m coming to find is that, it is OK to sit with someone during a hard time and really just be a friend and pair of ears. Not to carry the burden as my own, but to really just have the heart to hear people out. This needs to come with discernment and wisdom of course to see what boundaries you may need to put into place in order to allow yourself to be available to people, but the act of just listening is such a blessing to other people.
There has been a lot of hurt going on in the world lately, and that has been something that I’ve been processing through this last week. Hope comes into play when we recognize that Jesus really is the only one who can change people’s hearts and the events that happen. Clinging on to that has been one of the biggest blessings that I can encourage others with lately..
Romans 5:3-8 says it best~
3 Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We have hope that we can cling onto because Christ has given us the Holy Spirit who lives within us. I have the hope that Christ will love us through our hardships, that He will see us through our misery and that He will come again.. I trust God, that he knows us personally and that He does have our best interest at heart, but we need to be patient and have faith that He will come through for us! 🙂
In other news– I have $300 from meeting my $5,000 goal by this week!!! If you feel so inclined as to donate, please feel free to do so via my blog! Also, to keep updated on what will be happening within the next month, feel free to subscribe to my blog as Training Camp is exactly 30 days away! Wow, time is flying by fast!!! 😀
