One time I moved across the country for something that didn’t pan out. Another time I threw myself into developing a community that never knew how to welcome me. Those were dark days.
A friend’s husband just passed and left her with a baby. Another friend is suffering multiple miscarriages. Another friend was denied an interview for a job they deserve.
Some friends of mine back in Denver spend every day with homeless teenagers. Everyday with heroine addicts and drug dealers and occassionally, murderers. Two families I know are waiting for years to adopt while the kids they love are stranded thousands of miles away.
The kids I met at Emmanuel orphanage in Delhi are sleeping three to a bed in 110º. If things go well, they might get some chicken this week.
One guy I know is losing the battle to control both his mind and body. Another just got dumped…again. Another buried both parents the year he graduated high school.
Life is really tough.
To be honest with you, mine feels pretty rough right now. But not as tough as many I know.
Although I am often depressed and even despair, it hasn’t shaken a few basic hopes. They are:
1. This world is not all. Even when science explains how everything works, it will never answer “why?” The very fact that there is an unanswerable why question is all the proof I need to know that this world is not all.
2. We humans refuse to except a reality with no justice. Hindus count on Karma. Atheist fight against oppresive religion. Christians are holding out for a new heaven and new earth, and if necessary, a hell.
3. If there is more to this world, and there is justice, then there is a point to my story. To our stories. This is all going somewhere.
But none of this changes the fact that, in the meantime, life if tough.
So today, be kind to those you see. Chances are, they’re going through a lot.
And if you hope in Christ remember that
” In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
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