My life isn’t what I’d expected. If you’d asked me a decade ago where I’d live or work, you’d have gotten a different answer.
But I am thankful.
I am thankful for the darkest of times. Though 2006 was a difficult year, it was perhaps the most formative series of months for me personally. It strengthened my faith and hope. I was finally able to finish the verse, “Hope in God. For I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.”
I am not in turmoil any longer. But when turmoil comes, large or small, fleeting or long-lasting, I remember that year. I remember the people who journeyed with me. Those who provided tissues and time, two precious gifts.
I have also sought to be such a friend to others. I will sit with people who are grieving and I will not expect one conversation or one verse to erase their pain. I am beyond thankful for people who sustained me as I forged steadily onward. I want to pay it forward– tissues and time.
Life is full of journeys. Everyone is fighting some kind of battle. Everyone is grieving something. Everyone has some blocked goal that seems insurmountable.
What do we do with these emotions? How can we fight for joy together?
I will fight for joy. Joy does not always come easily, naturally, or without effort. I will trust an unknown future to a known God. I will fight for deep, solemn, abiding joy.
2006 taught me how to do that.
