What do we do with life's curve balls? You expected one thing and ended up with something entirely different. You did not see it coming. You assumed life would go well today and then it didn't. Disappointment, confusion, discouragement, or despair set in. They plant their feet in your mind and sit down hard on your heart. What to do?
Do you know that Christ had tough days too? Listen to this: ...in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:7-8).
Somehow I've never pictured Christ praying with vehement cries and tears, except right before His crucifixion. That Scripture caught me by surprise. How does He know what we are feeling on our worst days? Because He has felt the same way too.
Who better to take our despair, our tears to than Jesus? He knows what you are feeling right now, not just because He knows your thoughts, but also because He experienced those exact feelings when He appeared in the flesh on planet Earth. Vehement cries and tears - those are pretty intense emotions.
Although I do not enjoy crying (who does?), I know that it is God's means of washing away the pain and hurt, the disappointment and despair. It cleanses our souls. It relieves the emotional pressure that builds up quite naturally when life throws us a curve ball, especially one that lasts weeks, months or years.
I have a family friend who has dealt with a medical condition in a family member for decades, yet has never been heard to complain. He diligently goes about his day serving people with a smile and modeling Christ to friends and strangers. His focus is not on himself, but on Christ and others. He was abandoned by his best friend more than 40 years ago, yet at that friend's funeral he stood up in the church and voiced the highest compliments about that friend, never mentioning to those gathered to pay their respects that he had not seen him in all those years. I will always admire the way he handled those curve balls.
There are two things that I learned from family and friends that have served me well through the dozens of discouraging and disappointing twists and turns in my life - persevere and never give up. In every trial we have an opportunity to learn to obey and to undergo the refining that fashions us in the image of Christ, if we do not quit.
Christ modeled obedience through suffering. In John 14 and 16 He tells us that He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us through this maze of life. We are not alone. The Holy Spirit is our comforter and counselor. Ask for His help. Lean on His strength. You do not need to suffer alone. Lay your head down on the pillow, pour out your heart to Jesus. He's listening. When you've dried your tears, ask what He wants you to do next.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (I Corinthians 1:3-4).
Is there someone you can now encourage with the comfort you have received?
If you are still struggling, there is a great book that might lift your spirits, The God of All Comfort, by Hannah Whitall Smith. Whenever I pick up that book, I can randomly turn to any page and find encouragement from her words.
Don't let life's curve balls knock you out of the game. Persevere. Don't quit. Move through it leaning on Christ and His Word. Be obedient.
You cannot lose if you do not give up.
