Sorry - not sorry.
As much as offering a "Roadmap through Difficult Times" is valid click-bait, the truth is there is no roadmap. Often there isn't even a road until you make one for those coming up behind you. There is no roadmap, no road, no guarantees, no promises - just irritating people like me who bring you happy little news like this and tell you what you never want to hear. No one wants to believe that difficult seasons happen to everyone. We'd rather believe a prettier prosperity version of life and Christianity. It's shiny and mesmerizing and preferable and completely false. Good times are not always a reward and bad times are not necessarily punishment. You know what they are? LIFE - it's just life.
In the past few months, we as a people have experienced some difficulty. Loss of income, loss of freedom, loss of friends and family, loss of safety, loss of our illusions of what American is like for all Americans. Even as I type those words, there are faces flashing before my eyes of people I love who are in those situations and difficult seasons. My friends who've lost jobs, everyone who's been banished to solitary life to escape the coronavirus, black lives that live in fear when they're targeted by people in authority, everyone else who is finally coming to grips with the America they love being in stark contrast to the America of our fellow Brothers and Sisters, friends who've lost their mother, father, or friends to eternity.
Life is fraught with difficult seasons. Everyone experiences them. If they say they don't, they're either lying or about to make millions bottling and selling whatever has made them exempt to the human experience.
I promised you weeks ago a simple series of blogs to help us all navigate difficult seasons. They will not be a roadmap, but they can be a compass. I tell you this because in the last several weeks since that time I've practiced this advice to get through my own struggles and anxieties. In full disclosure, these practices have not fixed one single solitary thing, but they have helped me find my bearings and steady myself when the earth beneath us all seems to be shaken.
Tomorrow - part one.
Today, just to help us all feel like we're in the same place - What is your difficult season you're in and how can I pray for you? Please comment below.
(This series is based on an article from My Jewish Learning. Click the link for the full article.)