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blog 3/25/16
- Debbie
"No More Pretending"
I didn’t blog last week. I’m sorry if you were looking for it. I have a really good excuse: I was helping my son and daughter-in-law move to Baltimore to take a position as a youth pastor. When I told my friends what I was doing and that they were moving so far away, they would look at me with all the pity they could muster, tilt their heads a little, pat my arm and ask “How are you doing?”
My answer was always the same. “I’m just pretending nothing is changing.” I’m just pretending. That answer makes all of my therapist/counselor friends cringe and then smile a little. They smile because they know that all of that un-dealt-with, pushed down, repressed junk is what keeps them in business.
When difficult stuff like this happens my go to verse is usually John 16:33 - “In this world you will have tribulation.” But, honestly, that verse doesn’t apply here. Not every difficult thing we go through is tribulation. Sometimes there is just difficult stuff that is a part of life and a part of our spiritual walk. As a matter-of-fact I’m not quite sure if this ache I feel is just sadness or if it is the unbelievable pride I feel bursting to get out.
This is NOT a bad thing. This is why we raised him, why we fed and clothed him, why we laughed and cried with him, why we dragged him to church, why we prayed with him and for him, why we fought with him and supported him. And here he is. This is not a bad thing, this is just a difficult thing.
Yes, in this world we will have tribulation AND in this world there will just be difficult things for us to deal with. It helps to recognize the difference. These difficult things are what makes us who we are and what makes us more like Christ. They are what Paul was talking about in Philippians 4:12-13
“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
Paul didn’t just experience the bad. He experienced good and bad, hungry and full, plenty and want. It is the difficult that makes us appreciate the not-so-difficult, and it is the combination of the two that teaches us - whatever the circumstance, we can trust the one who strengthens us.
I don’t have to be afraid of change. I don’t have to be afraid of difficult. I certainly don’t have to let myself be so consumed by the difficult that I am blind to the victory. So, I guess I don’t have to pretend that nothing has changed. I will celebrate the good. I will celebrate the full and the plenty. I will celebrate the strength. No more pretending.
Debbie Dartt Ministries © 2016