Hard Times

Raise your hand if you dislike hard things. I see those hands, and I’m with you.

I wish I could welcome hard things that come my way or enjoy battles that push me to my limit. I don’t. I’m a planner and love things to turn out exactly as I envisioned. My heart soars when I can check things off my to do list, see my goals accomplished, and chart my progress. I also love belly laughs, peaceful times, long walks, and the sound of waterfalls. I dislike sad movies, and I flip to the end of the book to make sure it has a happy ending.

But sometimes, life doesn’t give me laughter, coziness, and safety. It throws hard things my way, and I wonder how God could have the audacity to let those things happen. Have you ever felt like me?

Life is hard. We find ourselves plopped down in the middle of a hard season we didn’t see coming and didn’t ask for. New realities come rushing in, and the quiet is deafening. We want to hear from God, but His voice seems silent, and we feel forgotten. During the season of hard things, we look around and wonder how we will ever put the pieces back together. Will we ever feel normal again? I have faced seasons when the panic sets in, along with sadness, discouragement, and worry. It seems to drag on, and I’m looking around, asking God if He is still there.

It’s interesting, though, because the more I face hard things, the more I realize their value. If you look at them through a certain lens, you find treasure and learn lessons. That lens shows me that even moments that cut deep are not wasted. Without them, I would still be a version of myself that I don’t want to be. The qualities that make a strong, authentic woman of God I admire don’t come easy. They are forged in our spirit, not handed to us.

I have learned that empathy comes after we have experienced the pain of hard things. Courage shows up during the battle, and perseverance comes when we push through trials. Somewhere along the way, we realize a peace has settled into us even as the storm is still raging. Joy comes after we’ve learned to walk through the heartache, and then resilience emerges when we’ve been knocked down over and over. It’s a process we must go through. Our faith grows when what we see doesn’t live up to our hopes and dreams. I am discovering that God has given me hard things as a gift. He never left me, but was handing me exactly what I needed to walk through the barren desert and painful season. Within those hard things, we find the best moments and the most life-giving lessons. Isn’t it comforting to know that our best can grow from the soil of brokenness?

In her book, Anonymous, Alicia Britt Chole writes: “When pressed by testing, tempting times, it can strengthen our resolve to remember that trials and temptations are not the real enemy. Eternally, perhaps our greatest enemy on earth is losing perspective and beginning to value our fragile surroundings more than God’s faithful friendship in our lives. From that point of view, if God’s presence has led us into trying places, is there really any other place we would rather be?”

God is with us during the hard times, and all the time in between. There is no place that is too far from his presence and no season when he isn’t walking beside us. He presides over all our moments. When we realize we are standing on holy ground, even when our hearts are breaking and dreams shattered, something builds in our souls. We grow in a deeper knowledge of God that doesn’t come to us in happy, cozy times, but is learned deep in the trenches of trial. We begin to know ourselves best when we are broken, weak, and feeling inadequate. It’s okay. God already knows everything you are feeling, and He still loves you. That is enough to get us through those hard things.

When we are walking on that holy ground, we find the strength and courage to keep taking one step at a time. And that is when we discover He was already there, ahead of us, waiting with His arms full of grace and treasure.