I wanna have time for you. I want to hear you finish your story. I don’t want to be presumptuous and guess your next word. Unless you want my help, and are really struggling.
I want to value and treasure you and your friendship and not compare myself to you or be hyper-aware of your flaws to make myself feel better about me. I want to celebrate with you when good things happen to you and be sad with you when hard things happen.
I want to build you up and support you when you want to see better or can’t see all of your potential. You are worthy. While there is breath, there is hope. Nobody is too far gone, nobody is hopeless. Nobody is alone.
I want you to know that you aren’t alone.
I want you to know that I’m on this journey with you and want to be loved just as much as you. I want to be liked too, which is a struggle sometimes. Compromising for other people is so tempting because we want to avoid short-term discomfort. I want you to know that you don’t need to please everybody. Don’t please people. Stand up for what you know is right and good and true.
Stand up for God’s morals. It’s a high bar, but when we settle for low bars, we don’t grow.
I want to see you grow and get better. I want to see you succeed. Your gifts and my gifts are so very different, but God gave us both our gifts to further His kingdom.
I’m a writer. A singer. A wordsmith. A goofball. Dramatic. Passionate. Sensitive. An athlete. A dreamer. A dancer. A child of God.
You might be a scientist. An engineer. A programmer. A nurse. A mechanic. A machinist. A cyber security expert. A consultant. A salesman.
Whatever you do for work, do it well. Look for the good in it. Be grateful. Trust the process.
I’ve realized how easy it is to grumble and how very hard it is to look for God in every situation. The looking for God isn’t the hard part; it’s the awareness. It’s keeping in tune with the Holy Spirit and knowing that it’s Him who’s behind the scenes wherever we are: on the peaks and in the valleys.
God doesn’t leave us alone. To you who is feeling alone and feeling like there isn’t a point to the suffering you’re experiencing, I want to tell you something important:
it’s not for naught.
Your suffering has purpose.
I know you want to feel comfortable. I know you want to be out of pain. I know you want things to go back to where they were before. Maybe it seems like that anyway but where there is pain, there is truly gain.
I also hate that cliche… but it’s true.
I look out the window and see the raindrops on the window from this morning’s storm. I see the trees with leaves both green and brown and half of them on the ground. The leaves have died and fall to the ground. They give back to the soil and become part of the earth as the days and weeks and season passes by.
Parts of us have to die too, and fall away. To make room for new life. New thoughts. New habits. New patterns. New growth.
Our roots grow deeper with every season. As a whole we get stronger, and we produce more and more fruit.
Dear brother or sister, God is with you. Look to Him to satisfy you. Trust the process. Ask Him for comfort. Ask Him for peace. Ask Him for guidance. Ask Him for wisdom. Ask.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8
My friend. I want you to know that the door is open…. the door to joy. The door to more.
To rejoice is a choice, and we must choose joy. In all things. Through all things.
Lord, I trust you. I trust the process. Lead me to show you to others. Thank you for giving us friendships and relationships and for showing us hope.
xxx
V
