I usually ponder my thoughts in my paper journal and if they feel profound enough to bring out into the light, I post them here. Tonight, though I am shooting from the hip...
A few nights ago I hung out with a deep thinker friend.
When we chat I struggle to keep up, actually.
She is a genius, I'm sure.
Certifiably.
I'm not.
We talked about some deep stuff... painful stuff... problems and such. I shared about how, when faced with the hard stuff, I really look for my "way out" of the pain circle.
When we talked about it, I even labeled it looking for my "easy way out".
She called it sugar coating.
When faced with life's overwhelming painful challenges I gravitate quickly to God. That's not a self-righteousness statement. I consider it a tremendously humbling thing that I have even come to that place. But I've learned to look for the shortest route to find His light and grab hold of His hand when the load is too heavy for me. Some would call that "weak"... whatever.
I've experienced God up close and personal in some heavy places, my darkest hours... when I've been alone with some really hard circumstances and choices. In those dark times there were choices about whether I'd give up or get up.
I've been blessed with the knowledge that there was always a point... an option.... a moment where I could choose to look up, look to God, listen to what He has said in His Word that pertains to my situation and choose whether I want to believe it and cling to that or give up...give in to defeat, depression, anxiety and hopelessness... and darkness.
I choose hope. I'm going to continue to choose hope. I choose the promises. Maybe that makes me a PollyAnna or a sugarcoater. I don't care. It also makes me lighthearted, and peaceful and encouraged and hopeful and really free to live life with joy.
My hope is that ya'll know that you have a choice too. The choice is always there... light and love... the message that Jesus laid out vs. darkness and fear and despair... the message of the enemy of your life. The choice is always there. It's yours. Choose life.
#chooselife #choosejoy #chooehope #youcanchoose #hardtimes #difficutcircumstances #pain #jesus #light #joy #hope