Overcoming

When you go through difficult times in life, things can seem bleak. In our internet age, it is even harder, when everyone else appears to have the picture perfect life. It seems like whenever you are going through a certain hardship, everyone else online is having success in that very same area.

As I’m facing challenges this year, I’ve been unable to find answers or advice that have given me complete peace. A lot of the Christian influencers and people online talk about hard times they “overcame” many years ago or at some point in the past.

But what about those of us who are currently enduring a really drawn out and prolonged hard time? What if it has lasted not weeks or months…but years? There is no past tense for people who are currently “overcoming” seemingly unending challenges. Have you experienced something similar?

When things get hard, I often turn to resources and others. Even though I’m a big prayer, I rarely crack open my Bible until I’m really desperate for guidance and/or encouragement. It’s ironic that the most important resource is right there in front of me, and I don’t go to it first. I know many of you are the same.

For me, my life doesn’t exactly look like I thought it would or imagined. I’m in my mid-40s, and I thought I would be in a different place professionally. I worked really hard on a major endeavor and, due to circumstances completely out of my control, things didn’t turn out as I had planned. However, it was more than just a disappointment.

Have you experienced a situation that involved more than just one disappointment…where there are so many hurtful components they can seem overwhelming?

This is a good verse when times get tough. “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33.

This verse tells me that, regardless of what I may face in life, I can rest assured that, with God, things will work out at some point. It may not be today or tomorrow, but at some point, my challenges will lead to God’s accomplishments.

So, in the meantime, I’m doing my best to “overcome” and maintain faith that something good will come out of a circumstance that has been extremely challenging. I don’t want to be in the “overcoming” stage for too much longer. Life is very short, and I look forward to a day, with God’s help, when I, too, can say I “overcame.”