Never Promised "Easy"

You know you're desperate, and perhaps a little lonely, when you take time to read all the posts from your "Neighbour Nextdoor" emails but ... it is no longer the neighbourhood you live in. I've considered deleting myself from this page but I see no where I can easily do that, so I'm stalking my old neighbourhood via lap-top computer.

Moving away from people I love and a city I enjoyed has not been easy. But ... when was I promised "easy"? I don't read much about ease in the history of the world. In fact, the best stories are fraught with woes and challenges, hopefully followed with growth and at least a little joy.

Take a good movie, for instance. Even if we differ on genre, I think we can all relate to this on some level.

On a recent particular day, the TV was on while I was chatting to my sister on the phone, while baking. (Don't be too impressed. They were cookies baked from the frozen dough I'd bought from a fundraiser.) Anyway, something happened on the show that compelled me to cease the phone conversation and nearly burn a cookie batch. The main character was finally about to reveal what really made him tick!

As suspected, this guy had suffered unimaginable crisis and trauma. Oh yeah! He hadn't always been the confident, successful man seen at the start of the program and his drop-dead-gorgeous counterpart was finally going to pull the truth from his troubled soul. (Deep breath here for the following run-on sentences.)

It was revealed that ... his mother had died in a tragic accident when he was a child, his step-father had then become abusive which unavoidably got him sent to a foster home for the entirety of his teen years. He married young but his wife left him for a man she'd secretly dated since their wedding day. He'd failed at the many jobs he'd first attempted but after his favoured pet died, with hard work and fortitude he'd finally acquired the wealth and success he'd sought. Unfortunately, with all he'd gone through in his whole twenty-eight years of life, he was left a broken man with need of someone to understand and console him. Fortunately for him, this beautiful colleague, moved by his tale as evidenced by the two tears falling gently down her cheek, would be the balm for his achy-breaky heart.

I, of course, groaned a little inside but was my interest piqued? Absolutely. I'd only known this character to be a strong and confident specimen of a man (you know, for the whole first hour of the show), but now I saw him with empathy and understanding.

Ah ... it is within our pain and sorrow that we see one another as human, and can relate.

Like a good story on the screen or in a book, in real life there is always pain, growth, more pain, more growth, more pain ... you get it.

I mean, do you enjoy a story where everything is perfection within and surrounding all characters? Certainly not. It's boring and non-relatable.

Trauma, difficulty, pain and sadness, is ... reality. It may be challenging and awful but we've all had at least some of it in our lives.

Even the rare person who bounces around looking happy all the time hasn't always had it easy. Of course, there is a chance that they may be delusional but they also may have risen above their challenges and don't need to speak of them constantly.

Thankfully, the "poor me" scenes on TV don't often last long. If they did, we'd all be yelling "suck it up" before long, and hope that we haven't wasted our time just to see an unhappy ending.

So ... back to "the poor me" moments I still seem to be experiencing. Yes, this change has been a challenge and still is BUT ... I look with great anticipation to the growth part. The part that makes me a better person. The part where I feel content again. The part where I'll shut up about my woes!

Of course, the good news is ... through the sadness, the stress, the anxiety and even grieving for what was ... God is here. With me and with you. All the time.

No one has ever been promised "easy", but we have a Saviour who has promised to help us every time we have a need. He didn't have it "easy" at all but He is ... GOOD!

Hebrews 13:5b (NIV) - "... Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

1 Peter 5:7 (NIV) - "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you."

Happy October everyone!

Pattie Janzen