As I write this, I sit on the other side of a valley I have passed through.
While I was under, I felt alone. I never was.
You do not have to be either. You are never alone.
I want to be upfront from the beginning. The purpose of this specific expression is to be clear, direct, and unapologetic in sharing with you about my faith and my struggles. I wanted to shed some light on some of the things that I’ve wrestled with over the last five years or so. My main reason for writing this blog is so that if you feel like there is a war raging in your head and in your soul, you do not have to feel alone in your fight.
You may believe in a higher power. You may believe in God. You may not believe at all.
Let me begin by saying wherever you find yourself on that spectrum; you are welcome here all the same.
My personal conviction is this; I believe God is the ultimate creator. My creator. I believe God has made humankind to be known by Him. Perhaps one of my biggest lessons that I am continually learning is that we have been created to be whole and complete.
While our human condition may leave us inadequate, God is relentless in His pursuit to restore.
Life happens in the tensions of everyday. It happens in the calm and in the chaos. It breathes in the loss and in the gain. I am beginning to understand that without wholeness and joy, it is impossible to walk the tensions of this life well. I have found that my only source of sustained wholeness and joy is given from God. Every other source that I have experienced is fleeting or fades away.
There is wholeness and joy for you and me in this life that cannot be quenched by circumstance and shadow. Let me be clear, I’m not saying life is easy. It can be agonizingly difficult.
Despite this, and through all of this I believe God is there to hold us, to carry us through and to know us. He can make us whole in our brokenness and give us joy in our despair.
Despair and brokenness are both tragic and uncomfortable. I wouldn’t wish the darkness on anyone, nor would I desire more of a portion then I have had. Still, I know it to be true that God brings light to the darkest of the dark and there is no depth that He would not go to meet us.
Life is about walking and living on that fine line between tempest & calm.
You are not alone when the shadow takes your hand and leads you into the valley. You are not alone in the shadowlands because God is there, and that is where I found Him.
