“Everything is a mess, and I just want to start this day/week/month/life over. I can’t shake this feeling that I am a shadow of what I really want to be today. Why is everyone else succeeding with their best life and I … just feel off.”
These are the words I hear and read all the time from people. They
are trying their best today, but they feel like that are fighting a losing battle.
If you feel like this, even in the slightest, take a moment and look at the picture in this post.
She carries the darkness inside her while standing in the light. The sky is bright and the light is present, but she wrestles with what is inside her while straining to feel and know the light.
Sometimes the problem we have is that we see the world as dark, not because it really is, but we are projecting the darkness inside of us that is clouding our hearts and minds onto the world around us. There is light, but we aren’t seeing or feeling it.
If you can relate do not give up. There is hope for us all.
When Jesus was on the cross and said the words “It is finished” the darkness of loss, pain, and death did not vanish, but it did not win either. I believe that in that moment every day of personal and community darkness was present on that cross, named on that cross, bleed, wept, and died on that cross. The pain did not vanish. It was defeated!
The reality of this victory was revealed three days later with an empty tomb.
If you feel today that the storm inside of you is like a darkened closed tomb I pray that you will know that you are not alone in there and that you are not at your end. You have more to give to this world and more to love to receive as well. At this moment the victorious joy of the resurrected Jesus is in there too digging away at what holds you inside. I pray that God’s peace, real peace will speak to the waves that are crashing on the shores of your heart and mind so that they will be made still. I pray that you will know love. The kind of love that gives everything for you, never leaving, never raising a hand against, never tearing your down with toxic words, but embraces you with safety and fills you with hope that today will be a turning point and tomorrow will be a positive step forward.
Jesus help all who read this and those whom we know that walk through this life chained to their pain. Set us free with your victory.
It is finished!
Amen.
Rev. Shawn J. Smith 