Hope in Suffering

Wordless

One of the strangest parts of this (low energy? depressed? just “off”?) season I am currently walking through has been my inability to find words to describe it. Regular readers of this blog have no doubt noticed that because, well, I haven’t had words to blog. Fred has noticed it because I simply cannot describe my experience. I’m there. Present with the children and him. Yet something (difficult? painful? distracting?) is churning away inside of me. In one way, it’s like there is a wall around me and I can see my real life; I’m going through most of the motions of my real life. But there is a disconnect.

Thankfully, whatever it is is definitely lessening and I think I’m on the true upswing of it all. This is a great praise and I give thanks to God and to my friends and family who have demonstrated patience with me. I am also grateful for the counsel and practical help I have received and I think I’ll try to share some of that with you in my next few posts.

But today I’ll sign off with my favorite bit of advice received recently from a friend … she encouraged me to STOP creating new content on things like church conflict, fear, alienation of relationships, etc. and instead create a new women’s retreat all on the topic of JOY. She said this because, of course, the more I prep on, say, the topic of FEAR, the more oppressed I tend to be by overwhelming anxiety. (Which makes ME think that, of course, I should be the LAST person speaking on this topic! 100%. For SURE! Well. Were it not for that pesky ol, “In my weakness, HE is strong” verse.)

My friend said, “Just think! If you prep on JOY maybe you’ll be overwhelmed with JOY!” She may be onto something there … 🙂

But for now, I need to persevere in prepping the speaking commitments I have. And so I shall. But every time I think about what she said, it makes me smile.

 

Hope your week is going well!

Blessings and joy,
Tara B.