Life is hard, and I can't do a thing about it.
I'm not gonna lie. October has been tough for me to watch. Not tough for me to live through, but we've been doing a lot more listening and comforting instead of celebrating with the people in our lives. There's so much pain in the world. I can think of so many people living through all kinds of heart-wrenching situations. I know two different people who each suddenly lost close family members. I know someone else who lost their home in a fire last month. My cousin, who happens to be the same age as my husband, was diagnosed with breast cancer only a few weeks ago and has already had major surgery. She still has months of chemo ahead of her. My grandfather has developed heart problems on top of all the other health issues going on, and I can't even be their for him because he wouldn't remember me if we DID live close enough for me to visit often. I've had to stand back silently and watch people make decisions that I would never in a million years expect of them. I could list 5 people off the top of my head who are struggling so much financially that they're concerned about how they'll buy their food. I'll bet I know 20 more people in the same boat, only I don't know about it. And there's almost nothing I can do about any of it.
I can't bring people back from the dead. I can't replace family treasures. I can't cure cancer or hearts. I can't bring back people's memories. I can't make anyone do anything or even take away their pain. I should have learned at least this lesson by now since we're living through the "terrible twos" for the third time. Honestly, you can't make a two year old do ANYTHING he doesn't want to do. Well, I guess I can, but it's not easy or fun. My best strategies are diversions, distractions, and reverse psychology, but I digress. Even if I somehow became the beneficiary of an obscene amount of money, it would never be enough. We live in a world full of pain and suffering, a continual proof of Murphy's Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
What can I say? We live in a fallen world. Obviously, these people and stories are weighing heavily on my heart tonight or else I wouldn't be writing about it. So why did I let myself get bogged down in these problems that I can't do anything about? Well, it wasn't for lack of trying. I watched Friends on nick@nite for half an hour. I watched bits and pieces of Kramer vs Kramer on the TV Guide channel (by the way, Meryl Streep is beautiful!). I tried to go to sleep. I checked facebook like 20 times, but no one would post anything except sports stuff. I don't know what those things mean! I don't recognize who you're talking about, and I freely admit that I don't care about USC's special, new uniforms! I wish I didn't know USC had pretty, new uniforms because that knowledge is taking up valuable brain space that I'll never recover.
I finally gave up and admitted that God was putting these things on my heart for a reason, and I'd better figure it out so I could go to bed at a somewhat decent hour. Finally, I came up with this. I think it's important to feel the weight of these matters sometimes. Although life is also full of beauty and joy, these hard times come to everyone. No one escapes suffering and trials. So the real question is how do people deal with these things when they come? For me personally, it's Jesus that guides me. I know what the real problem is, and that I can't do anything to fix anything. I remember that God planned these things, orchestrated them, and He can work good through them and us in spite of the pain and difficulty.
Jesus came back from the dead. Death doesn't hold Him. He can heal hearts and cancer. He will restore my grandfather's memories one day. He will walk with people through their paths, no matter how strange a trail a person chooses. He owns cattle on a thousand hills (Ps 50:10). God provides for the needs for birds and flowers so how much better will He provide for His people?
I can't appreciate what God gives me if I don't see what we need. These things make me thankful for the easy times. Sometimes, when I've had a period of time where everything's been happy and fairly easy, I try to really enjoy it. I know that something is coming at me that will be hard and difficult, it's just a matter of time. I don't mean to sound cynical, but really. If I told you I thought life would be joyful and easy and fun forever and ever and ever, you would think I was crazy. I'll take cynical over crazy.
So there it is. Life is hard. Jesus is the only real solution. Hopefully I can go to sleep now. =)
I can't bring people back from the dead. I can't replace family treasures. I can't cure cancer or hearts. I can't bring back people's memories. I can't make anyone do anything or even take away their pain. I should have learned at least this lesson by now since we're living through the "terrible twos" for the third time. Honestly, you can't make a two year old do ANYTHING he doesn't want to do. Well, I guess I can, but it's not easy or fun. My best strategies are diversions, distractions, and reverse psychology, but I digress. Even if I somehow became the beneficiary of an obscene amount of money, it would never be enough. We live in a world full of pain and suffering, a continual proof of Murphy's Law: Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.
What can I say? We live in a fallen world. Obviously, these people and stories are weighing heavily on my heart tonight or else I wouldn't be writing about it. So why did I let myself get bogged down in these problems that I can't do anything about? Well, it wasn't for lack of trying. I watched Friends on nick@nite for half an hour. I watched bits and pieces of Kramer vs Kramer on the TV Guide channel (by the way, Meryl Streep is beautiful!). I tried to go to sleep. I checked facebook like 20 times, but no one would post anything except sports stuff. I don't know what those things mean! I don't recognize who you're talking about, and I freely admit that I don't care about USC's special, new uniforms! I wish I didn't know USC had pretty, new uniforms because that knowledge is taking up valuable brain space that I'll never recover.
I finally gave up and admitted that God was putting these things on my heart for a reason, and I'd better figure it out so I could go to bed at a somewhat decent hour. Finally, I came up with this. I think it's important to feel the weight of these matters sometimes. Although life is also full of beauty and joy, these hard times come to everyone. No one escapes suffering and trials. So the real question is how do people deal with these things when they come? For me personally, it's Jesus that guides me. I know what the real problem is, and that I can't do anything to fix anything. I remember that God planned these things, orchestrated them, and He can work good through them and us in spite of the pain and difficulty.
Jesus came back from the dead. Death doesn't hold Him. He can heal hearts and cancer. He will restore my grandfather's memories one day. He will walk with people through their paths, no matter how strange a trail a person chooses. He owns cattle on a thousand hills (Ps 50:10). God provides for the needs for birds and flowers so how much better will He provide for His people?
I can't appreciate what God gives me if I don't see what we need. These things make me thankful for the easy times. Sometimes, when I've had a period of time where everything's been happy and fairly easy, I try to really enjoy it. I know that something is coming at me that will be hard and difficult, it's just a matter of time. I don't mean to sound cynical, but really. If I told you I thought life would be joyful and easy and fun forever and ever and ever, you would think I was crazy. I'll take cynical over crazy.
So there it is. Life is hard. Jesus is the only real solution. Hopefully I can go to sleep now. =)
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