Weathered but Never Broken in Jesus

It takes energy that I don’t have to come on this page and pretend to be anything other than who I am. For this girl, being honest is how I roll. I sign each post, “See You in the Field,” and they are more than words that I just sign off with. It is an invitation to walk with me through the hard stuff that stretches us to hold onto God. When you feel weathered and worn, it is an invitation to come sit at my table for a while. Life can’t break us when we journey together.

So, today, I want to share a moment of transparency from my field to yours.

Most days, time spent in the caregiving field is far from a walk in the park. I’m sure you face your own challenges; to you, they are equally as hard.

The past couple weeks have been incredibly challenging, so I finally had an absolute meltdown. It wasn’t one of my finer moments. It wasn’t the first time. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be the last.

But sacred was the moment right in the middle, when all my tears spilled over, and I realized that every last one was landing on Jesus’s feet.

Not one teardrop had fallen in vain. A moment like that is a game-changer.

Then, you realize that even though you are in a storm hitting you full force and threatening to take you under, you will be okay.

Your house will stand because you have built it on the firm foundation of God’s word.

Yes, you are going to make it, and you will walk through unscathed because of the One who goes before you making the way.

Real life isn’t all shiny IG feeds and carefully edited posts. It is written in the margins and lived out in messy fields.

Life happens. The bad diagnosis steals the life you had planned, setbacks send you reeling, friends betray you, and you spend time watching others move ahead to bigger and better while you feel stuck on repeat. It is all part of living in a broken world that was turned upside down because of sin.

Life will sometimes take big chunks out of our hearts and take us on full-blown crying jags. It isn’t about always living a life with every hair in place. In real life, you will have more messy-bun-kind-of-days than you can count.

Real life is lived out along challenging roads and steep mountain climbs. It is experienced along paths that take our gorgeous heels right through the mud, and the winds of life blow all our well-kept perfection into a thousand pieces.

Along these ever-winding roads of all the mess and tears is where we learn to draw nigh to Jesus. It is here that we, like Job, come face to face with our Lord and Savior and live out the words of Job 42:5 (NIV) that says, “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” When you get close enough that you truly see Jesus, it will not just change your perspective but also change your life.

In the places we feel will surely crush us, we learn that living a life of ease is not the same as living a peace-filled life, and a life without pain is not a life lived out in faith.

We can find true, everlasting peace even amid the storms of life, and what a blessing it is.

Your faith may sometimes feel nonexistent, but when you have faith in Jesus, even the smallest amount is more than enough.

Without hardships, we would never realize just how much we need Jesus. In our hardships, we discover He is everything He said He is and more.

We may be weathered but never broken because of our Savior.

He will give us the strength to rise and try again despite heartaches and disappointment.

While the world seems to be always celebrating, a woman who fears the Lord will be praised, and in His timing, the work of her hands will be rewarded. God never forgets the labor we do in His name.

Crowns of life are a real thing.

Heaven is a real place.

Joy comes in the morning, and mercy waits for us at the beginning of each new day.

We will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

And in David’s words, “Lord, let me not forget all your benefits.” There are too many to count because He has thought of everything and left nothing out.

We will suffer in this world, but Jesus has overcome the world. What a relief to know that we will overcome, too, because of Jesus.

I pray your day is incredibly blessed and all your wildest dreams come true. But if you find yourself in a messy field full of tears, remember you have a friend who sticks closer than a brother and another one from the field. Friend, you are not alone.