Keeping On When Life is Hard
Keeping on
There are days when life is hard. A few weeks ago, two of my sisters hosted their youth group as part of a Progressive Supper. I note that, not because of the activity, but the timing. A few days earlier, we learned for certain that one of the sisters has cancer – again. Instead of hibernating in her bedroom, she reached beyond herself and did what she’d committed to earlier. Everyone had a good time. My sisters did, too – though right now, life is hard.
Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes life is doubly hard. It hardly ever seems fair. It is in those times that we choose to do the next thing rather than become paralyzed with fear and grief. We learned this – all six of us sisters – from our Mama. I’m feeling nostalgic this month because it’s her birthday and she’s not here anymore. We’ve celebrated her birthday fifteen times since she went to Heaven. Each time we celebrate, we remember things we learned from her example.
This has been a hard month. Our annual get-together was missing one sister who is unable to travel. She, too, received a cancer diagnosis this month – for the third time in nine years. It was hard to meet without her, but it was something we needed to do – for the rest of us. She wanted us to go, so we went. A few days later, all of us celebrated with her “back home” when we ate hickory nut cake together.
When life is hard
We are in a difficult season, and life is unmistakably hard. There are so many unknowns and questions with no answers.
This I know, when life is hard, the wrong response is to cower in a corner, become impotent to do life, and let anger fester. The right thing to do is keep on trusting God to make a way and to empower us with grace, even if the journey is an unwelcome one.
The right thing to do is to keep reaching out, keep giving, and keep investing in the Kingdom. When life is hard, we increase our trust quota by claiming the power of God to live well. We expend our energy into roots that are deep in the ground and we pull from that reserve. The only way to keep the faith is to claim the promises, live in those promises, and reiterate that He does all things well, even when life is hard.
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