Life: God’s Presence in the Hard Times

By +Jeanne Takenaka @JeanneTakenaka

Can I confess that I don’t like hard? I don’t want to have to suffer in doing what I’m expected to complete in a day.

I don’t want to run into an obstacle that knocks me down in the pursuit of living well.

I don’t know where I got the idea that living this life would be—should be—easy.

I don’t know why I have this desire to sail through my days with no pain, no difficulties, no trials.

Maybe it’s the human condition?

In being a wife, a mother, a writer? There is hard in all of it.

When my husband travels for weeks at a time and  everything seems to weigh on me? That can be hard to navigate. Especially when one or both of the boys are struggling with his absence. There’s no room for self-pity. I’m pouring out, expending myself because that’s what needs to be done.

When the boys are trying to figure out who they are, how to negotiate the rapids of school or junior high life? I’m their safe place. It’s a privilege. It’s hard to be the one who takes the brunt of their raw pain and tries to help them turn it into something beautiful.

In writing? Finding the words for a blogpost that might touch a reader . . .

. . . discovering the right aspects of a story that will speak truth and hope to readers . . .

. . . sometimes it seems like it would be easier to simply give up than to continue to pour myself into the words.

Not giving into the trap of comparing myself to where others are—what they’ve accomplished—is one of my personal struggles.

In being a human on this earth, there is hard.

The question becomes, am I going to focus on the hard? Let it overcome me, drag me down, leave me wounded on the side of life’s road?

Or, am I going to get back up, keep pursuing God, and live in a way that brings Him glory?

God says in his word that in this life we will have trouble. Not we may have trouble. We. Will.

When we walk through the hard things in this life, we make small choices each step of the way.

Often the hard times are bigger than we are. Are we going to press through in our own strength? Or, will we reach out a hand to God and ask for His help? Invite Him into the process of the walking through?

It seems easier to push through in our own strength, rather than to humble ourselves and have to depend on Someone to help us.

Often, when I’ve tried to push through on my own, I’ve been shoved down by the discouragement of not being able to move forward.

I’m learning to depend on the Lord to give me what I need to walk through the hard.

God is strength for me, and for each of us. I know the things I’ve shared aren’t nearly as hard as what others go through. God uses situations in our lives to help us to grow in understanding Who He is, as well as help us to grow in holiness.

He never promised our walk with Him would be painless. But He does promise to walk through the hard with us. And in this, I find great hope and courage.

What about you? What lessons have you learned in the hard seasons of your life? What encouragement can you share with other readers here?