Here I sit. In an extended season of learning all about myself, and I start seeing a pattern. Maybe you’ve noticed it too.
Its when I have all of my ducks in a row. Or enough of them wrangled to look like I have something to offer when all of sudden, my goals and dreams are inevitably interrupted by some undefined “hard thing” I didn’t seem coming. Be it whatever, a tough conversation, a weird situation at home, a nagging want or need that can’t be met yet or really… when you’ve washed your sheets and they are just staring at you, taunting you because its now midnight you have yet to put them back on your bed. #theworst #bleh
Does this happen to you, too? Everything is fine, until its not. But it seems to be that it always gets the “not” part faster than I think it should.
I pick myself up, whine to myself and snap my friends something quippy about wanting a maid, and try to forget it, move past it, detour around it, trying my darndest to not let it touch me. And then BAM, it happens again. I am messed up again. These darn “hard things” keep getting in the way of me taking over the world or just enjoying my day.
So here’s the pattern I haven’t seen before: “Hard things” are life itself.
Shoot. Dang. How can “hard things” be a guarantee? Why do we all fall into the statistic that says 100% of us will experience them? And if my math is correct, that means you are in a “hard thing” or about to see one.
Lately my “hard things” range from deciding what kind of person I am going to be and then actually having to make strides to be that, realizing I need to actually grieve that my life looks differently than I expected, loosing someone or something I thought wouldn’t go away, and just living the simple “hard thing” of not knowing what’s next or why any of this is happening. And even the “hard things” like seeing refugees on my Facebook feed and not knowing how I can help or seeing our nation be at odds with itself or knowing there are wars and famines in places I have visited or watching someone I love make a decision that hurts me.. ugh. Its hard.
So many times I feel like that “hard thing” is just something to get through or move past. That the other side of the “hard thing” will come with flower gardens, warm weather and someone making me sandwiches. Like I have lived through it so now I am entitled to check some sort of “that was hard” box, and I get to live happily ever after.
But that’s not the case. That “you just got to get through it” hoopla is just that: hoopla, and its dumb. I HAVE NEVER ACTUALLY GOTTEN TO THE OTHER SIDE. “Hard things” in the general sense have never fully gone away. Either there are new ones or you are still processing through the old ones… whew.
But here’s where my perspective has changed: “Hard things” are not actually separate events popping up in between all of my illusive successes. “Hard things” are not detours to where I think I need to go. And “hard things” are not some sort of commercial break during my game of life.
But “hard things” actually are life. They are the life in our lives. They are what make up the days in our lives (see what I did there?) And they are when we get to see who we are, and who our Creator is.
Besides, do we really get to see God’s full character and love for us in all of our successes, wins, trophies, promotions and bonuses? Not in my experience. I have learned more and developed a greater knowing of His character and everlasting love during my failures, challenges, slip ups, heartbreaks, battles in my head, tough situations.. and all things hard.
So if “hard things” aren’t going away, and that’s when His character is shown clearly. I guess I won’t push as hard to get past the them, try to detour them or forget about them. I’ll suck it up and make the bed.
I will sit in the “hard things” and see where I see Him.
Maybe that is the point.
Maybe that’s what He meant when He promised over and over again that He’ll never leave us.
