but pain doesn’t truly go away with the changing of a calendar year. In a season of deep pain, you might be begging for it to be over or you might be doubting that better days will ever come. In the lowest low, it can feel like there is no chance of things getting better and I will not try to convince you that it will. I don’t know what tomorrow will look like. I don’t know when the risk of this virus will die down, just as I don’t know if your pain will go away. What I do know, is that you are still here, and you are here for a reason.
season that you ever thought you would be in, I hear your deep pain and I’m so sorry. I will not tell you to be strong. I will not tell you to look at the bright side. I will not tell you to have more faith. It is biblically sound to say that this earth is broken and we will have deep pain no matter how deep the roots of our faith run. I don’t want you to feel guilty for anything you are feeling today.
What I can tell you is that God is still working, even when it feels like He isn’t. We are promised that He will never leave us, but in our deep pain, we can feel very alone. It’s okay if you can’t feel Him. Since none of us plan for seasons of deep pain, it can feel as though God isn’t with us. He’s still walking with you and maybe He sent me to tell you that. He doesn’t want you to fall victim to the lie that He left you or that He doesn’t care. If we go to the Bible and look at each major contributor, we see that no life is too broken for God to bring healing.
from my own seasons of deep brokenness, and it started in a season of literal darkness. I was in a hospital bed in the ICU on so much pain medicine that I didn’t know where I was when I opened my eyes in darkness. The pain was severe. I’d wake up to random people at night coming to change my gown while I slept. It was terrifying and I literally couldn’t move. After a few days of decline, they decided to let my mother sit near my bed at night as long as she didn’t fall asleep. When I woke up in a panic, totally disoriented, she would lock eyes with me and whisper, “Just get through today.”
God is locking eyes with you. He hasn’t fallen asleep. He is faithful and I know He is weeping with you in your pain, just as it breaks your heart to see children you love suffer. One day you will see more and understand more about how God will use this, but right now, just know that He loves you deeply. He never stopped loving you. He never will and he remains by your side.
No one plans for deep pain. You had plans and this isn’t at all what you thought your life would look like today. You may spend time wanting to go back to life before this valley. I hear that, friend. I wish I could take you there for a day, but yesterday is gone. God remains in the battle, but He isn’t going to bring back yesterday. He’s going to do something new.
My prayer for you is that you can gradually let go of what was. I’m not telling you to forget. Our past becomes part of us and we will carry the memories of people and experiences throughout out life. I’m alsonot telling you to go against biblical mandates of honoring the covenants that you made to God. Being sad or feeling hopeless is not a reason to give up on what you committed before God. When I tell you to let go of what was, I am asking you today to give up the “idea” that you had for your life. Just for today.
I mean moment by moment, hour by hour, allow God to keep you centered on today because today is enough. No matter how you feel about yesterday, it’s gone. Try to stop using it as a measure for how you will view today. Tomorrow isn’t promised for any of us, so don’t let the worry steal what you have in today. Allow God to bring you through today, just today, without robbing the gift of life by comparison.
Through your tears, in your deepest sorrow, ask God to give you a new hope, just for today. Not that He would give you assurance for every day after, but just help you get through the pain of today. Each day that you can do that will bring you closer to the victory that all of us are assured as followers of Christ.
I’m praying over each heart that reads these words, that I might only be a vessel of what the Lord needs you to hear. I’m asking the Lord to draw you near to Him and give you His peace, as you get through today.
