Wait for hope to appear. Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face. The “worst” is never the worst. Lam 3:28-29 (MSG)

Face Your Troubles – Part 2

Go to PART 1

It's in that sacred space of shared silence with the Divine, or even with a loved one that the warmth of hope starts to leak back into our torn heart. Even just a little bit.

When you go through something tragic, for the first few weeks, there’s enough noise and clamor and talk and things to do to keep you distracted and occupied. Friends drop over meals, people text and call to see if you’re OK… the space made in your life by tragedy gets filled in and buffered a little with the initial response from others. But then after a few weeks, the meals stop, people return to their busy lives, the texts and calls become few and far between. It's the silent times where tragedy and loss are deeply felt. It's in this space, the silent residue, where what's happened looks you full in the face, and you realise that somehow you’re going to have to get through it.

Don’t run from trouble, don’t run from the situation… take it on. Breathe it in, stare it right back. Be present with it in the silence and respond to it with prayerful meditation.

When talking about living with Parkinson’s Disease, Michael J Fox said, “I’m accepting… ‘living with’ or ‘working through’ Parkinson’s. Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it. I look at it like I’m a fluid that’s finding the fissures and cracks and flowing through.”

Hope is fluid. It works in and through the difficulty you’re facing. While we’re ranting and raving and declaring and arguing and shouting and looking for someone to blame or some way around what we’re facing, hope is looking for entry points into our brokenness. When we still our raging hearts and calm out tempestuous minds, it's like the tension eases, our muscles release, and it makes way for hope to enter. In that place of quiet acceptance, where you look your situation in the face, you realise that you’re not alone, that there will be a time beyond this pain and hope will lead you through.

When you run from trouble, you inadvertently run from hope. You run from the hope of healing and redemption and growth. Lean into God, face your fears and troubles with a steady heart, the steadiness you learned in the sacred and silent peace of God. Then think outside yourself. The worst is never the worst. You have much to be thankful for, even in heartache.

In a place of crises? Heartache? Confusion? Fear? Tragedy? I pray that the Divine, God himself, would make his strength known in your heart. The strength to face your troubles. To still the panic, ease the anger, and focus on the grace he has for you at this moment. This is a process not to be flippant with, or to cover over with grand statements of faith and heroism. Be vulnerable with your maker, with the infinite, who is with you always. Allow him to be present with you and look into your situation too. And as you ask him, not so much with words, but with the longing ache in your heart, “what do you see?” His response will echo hope all around you.

May you find the courage to face your troubles, and uncover the hope of Christ that is right there in the middle of it all. Be still, enter the silence… wait for hope to appear. Peace and grace friends.

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