I'll start this post with a disclaimer: I'm not a crier.
Growing up, my sisters and I would sometimes tease our mom for her ability to tear up on a dime...with a Hallmark commercial, anything with puppies or the one time on a sitcom ("Growing Pains" to be exact) where she cried because a friend of Mike (Kirk Cameron) was leaving to serve in the Army. :)
That's partly why in a way, it kills me to write this or to be this vulnerable...but I've cried a lot over the past year or so. Today on the way home, I started to get misty-eyed on the downtown trolley ride to my vehicle. When I got to the safety of my car, I lost it. I went in to The Ugly Cry where you sob and your face gets red and blotchy....and if anyone driving next to me saw this, they probably thought I was a little crazy.
At a stoplight, my cell phone rang. It was my sister and I tried to play it cool. But she knew my voice wasn't quite right (I HATE that it's a dead give-away!). "Are you okay? Did something happen today?"
"I'm fine," I answered, "It's nothing...and it's a lot of things. I've gotta go." I hung up the phone partly because I didn't want to get a ticket for using it while driving, but mainly because I didn't want to start bawling again.
I don't want to get into specifics, but I will say that like many people, I've faced a lot of change and hard stuff this year. And I've had some very amazing friends who have been hurt or gone through much worse than I ever have.
However, I will say that a lot of my own tears lately have been the good kind--where I've been so overwhelmed by God and His presence in worship or in His Word (yeah, this project has been part of that, too!).
Case in point, when I read today's passage after my afternoon episode, here's what I saw:
No test or temptation that comes your way
is beyond the course of what others have had to face.
All you need to remember
is that God will never let you down;
he'll never let you be pushed past your limit;
he'll always be there to help you come through it.
Isn't that so like God?!?
Even if one else reads this note or that verse today, He knew I would see it...just when I needed it the most.
If you're reading this post right now, I hope it means something to you. You are in my thoughts and prayers at this exact moment. For what it's worth (and by now you know I'm writing this in the middle of my own "stuff"), faith in God can get us through anything. I believe.
Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 12-14
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