I don’t know the Bible inside and out. If I’m honest I didn’t become a regular church-goer until I became the secretary of one. But nonetheless, I do have verses that stick in my head. Ones I’ve found during struggles or times I’ve looked for motivation or comfort. One of my favorites is 2 Corinthians 4:8-10, which states:
“8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
These verses give hope in my eyes. The world is beating us down, things keep going wrong, every where we turn there is a struggle. But keep going because we are not crushed, we are no in despair, we are not abandoned, and we are not destroyed. Jesus died for our sins. That’s pretty heavy. So whatever we go through, we can make it through. It isn’t easy to keep that mentality when things are really hard. It’s easier to say, “I give up,” “It’ll never get better,” “I don’t want to do this life anymore.” But there’s hope. There is. Even in the worst of times, there’s still hope, there’s still some good just floating around waiting for you to see it, to focus on it. Today might be hard, but I woke up. I might face battles, scary battles, but I have the strength to keep going. I may have days where I feel lonely, but I’m never alone. I might have financial trouble, I might be barely getting by and have no clue how I will make ends meet, but I will make ends meet.
We all have choices. We can decide to collapse and fold when the pressure gets to be too much, or we can try to see the silver lining that isn’t standing out too brightly and keep moving forward. We can be pessimistic or we can be optimistic. Glass half full, or half empty (of if you’re like me, you yell to the bartender to fill ‘er up!). When life is becoming too much, reach out. A friend, a family member, an animal, God, whatever. Whatever keeps you going. Maybe you’ll even find comfort in repeating the verse above until it really sticks. I can do it. You can do it. We all can do it. We are not destroyed. We are just getting started.
Great post 🙂