Day Sixty

LIFE IS HARD

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world!”

—JOHN 16:33 NIV

You don’t need me to tell you this, do you? Life is hard.

I don’t know what I thought I was signing up for, but I guess I thought things would be easier than this. Maybe I’m the slowest learner on our planet, but I’m still surprised every time a tragedy happens in my life or a situation takes a turn I didn’t expect.

I landed in Texas a few weeks ago and turned my phone off of airplane mode. While I’m flying, all phone business halts, but the minute the wheels are down, I am back in action. I’m always excited to see what texts have come in while I was in the air, usually two or three, or if I’m lucky, five.

This day—seventy-nine. Between Nashville and Dallas, something had happened. The screen of my phone exploded with a waterfall of text messages. I couldn’t even try to keep up as they blazed down my screen. But one word kept catching my eye.

DEAD

Someone was dead. I couldn’t tell who; the messages were passing my eyes too quickly. But panic rose in my chest because I knew tragedy had just landed with me in Texas.

The next few hours were filled with grief and weeping and changing flights and booking flights and moments of not knowing what to do.

You can be sad. You can be angry. You can be confused. But you don’t ever have reason to despair.

The nature of tragedy, huh? It sneaks up on you and sends your world into a tailspin, and then it is weeks, months, years of questions and pain and sadness and grief.

I felt it in the death of someone I loved. I felt it when my pastor stood on our church’s stage and said he was leaving. I felt it when the text came through that said our relationship was done. (Over text? I know. The worst.)

Life isn’t always easy. In fact, I think I’m growing to believe that life isn’t often easy. My friend Mike Foster, founder of People of the Second Chance, said it this way on Twitter, and I love it so much I want to tattoo it on my arm:

“Life is messy, hard, and weird. We don’t need to act surprised anymore.”

Right? So simple and yet brilliant. And so important to remember. (Hence the tattoo idea.)

God knows that life is painful.

So, yeah, you can be sad. You can be angry. You can be confused. But you don’t ever have reason to despair. Even when it gets tragic and dark, do not despair. You are braver than that.

BE BRAVE: I don’t know what kinds of hurt or tragedy you are facing right now, but I know, as Mike said, life is messy, hard, and weird. Allow yourself to feel that today.