Sometimes we go through a season of life that is just hard. Where we once stood tall and confident reaching for the sky and for the stars, we now fall to the ground and lay vulnerable, sad, angry, grief stricken and lost. Whether it is the death of a loved one, financial or health struggles, loss of a relationship, addictions spiraling out of control, depression-there are seasons when these happenings in our lives can bring us to our knees.
At times, the pain we experience in life can unbearable and paralyzing. The pain of life can be humbling as well, revealing that within us which is weak, unresolved, and limited. This self-awareness adds another layer to move through during difficult seasons of life. Parker Palmer says, “The spiritual journey is full of paradoxes. One of them is that the humiliation that brings us down—down to the ground on which it is safe to stand and fall—eventually takes us to a firmer and fuller sense of self.”
In the difficult seasons of your life, know that you are the strongest when you are the weakest. It takes a lot of strength to be vulnerable. It takes a lot of strength to bear your own pain and grief…to stay with it and see it through. It takes a lot of strength to accept or ask for help when you need it. It takes the strength of discipline to say no when temptations are the strongest. And to continue to walk down the path of uncertainty and the unknown when you are scared, broke down, and unsure—that takes a kind of strength that is admirable and courageous. You don’t have to “be” strong; you are strong, even in the midst of your weakness.
So pray good people and be tender to your soul.
Prayer for Faith
By Marianne Williamson from Illuminata
Dear God,
May I have faith.
May I not be tempted to forget Your power.
May I not be tempted to forget Your love.
May my mind not stray to the might of the destroyer but remember instead the might of the Lord.
Tomorrow, You shall show me.
You shall have the last word, the final say.
And so I shall not worry.
You shall redeem me,
I shall resurrect.
You shall bring forth new life from all apparent death.
You create from what the darkness has destroyed, for Your power is infinite, Your forgiveness total, Your mercy complete.
So it shall be that I might fall, but I shall not remain down for my Lord is with me.
He shall lift me up.
He shall create a new day.
He shall bring me home.
Praise God.
Amen.