just a little thought i had when i woke up this morning, and have been having for a while...
living life on planet earth is a constant mix of joy and pain. it is never mutually exclusive, it is 100% of the time both hard, sad, devastating, and wonderfully beautiful, joyful, and exhilarating.
an example... this morning i woke up so happy it's saturday because saturdays are the freakin bomb and i had a day full of really wonderful activities, but i also got a text from my sister asking me to pray because a car full of cru girls on their way home from panama city beach, florida, got in a pretty serious car accident. i scrolled through my instagram feed and saw so many fun pics filled with life but also looked through a coworker's feed and realized that she lost a baby a couple years ago. i'm celebrating one of my dearest friend's birthday tonight, while another one of my coworkers is reeling in the pain of losing her close and only brother just two months ago. other things too... every day there are different examples of this mix, sometimes more personal, sometimes more global. and we all have different examples within our own circles of this.
this isn't a sad post, it's actually really beautiful to me because this is human living. this is being alive. and Jesus is in the midst of absolutely all of it. He expounds joy to the millionth degree and brings sweet nearness and deep love in the darkest, most gut-wrenching pain. i'm not trying to wrap some shiny bow on this and i don't pretend to understand the extent of your pain or the world's pain and i'm not trying to say some kind of throw-away statement about beauty, just something i've observed about life this side of heaven. it oddly helps me deal with pain and suffering differently... knowing that joy can be felt deeper when we know pain, and pain can bring the colors of the world to life in a very unique way.
but what do i know, man. i'm just trying to figure this thing out. thanks for your grace.
living life on planet earth is a constant mix of joy and pain. it is never mutually exclusive, it is 100% of the time both hard, sad, devastating, and wonderfully beautiful, joyful, and exhilarating.
an example... this morning i woke up so happy it's saturday because saturdays are the freakin bomb and i had a day full of really wonderful activities, but i also got a text from my sister asking me to pray because a car full of cru girls on their way home from panama city beach, florida, got in a pretty serious car accident. i scrolled through my instagram feed and saw so many fun pics filled with life but also looked through a coworker's feed and realized that she lost a baby a couple years ago. i'm celebrating one of my dearest friend's birthday tonight, while another one of my coworkers is reeling in the pain of losing her close and only brother just two months ago. other things too... every day there are different examples of this mix, sometimes more personal, sometimes more global. and we all have different examples within our own circles of this.
this isn't a sad post, it's actually really beautiful to me because this is human living. this is being alive. and Jesus is in the midst of absolutely all of it. He expounds joy to the millionth degree and brings sweet nearness and deep love in the darkest, most gut-wrenching pain. i'm not trying to wrap some shiny bow on this and i don't pretend to understand the extent of your pain or the world's pain and i'm not trying to say some kind of throw-away statement about beauty, just something i've observed about life this side of heaven. it oddly helps me deal with pain and suffering differently... knowing that joy can be felt deeper when we know pain, and pain can bring the colors of the world to life in a very unique way.
but what do i know, man. i'm just trying to figure this thing out. thanks for your grace.
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