Struggle

All around me, my friends are struggling.

One friend's marriage is crumbling.

Another friend's sobriety is in jeopardy.

Still another faces financial insecurity.

I've answered late night calls and I've taken early morning walks. I've advised and I've listened. I've cried and I've prayed. I've suffered alongside their pain, their brokenness, and their loss.

That is all I know how to do.

I don't have the answers to their pain.

I cannot restore a marriage that has been shattered beyond repair.

I cannot remove a friend's desire to drink.

All I can do is be there when they call, listen when they speak and pray for God's providence in each of our lives.

I am humbled by the fact that these seem like such little, insignificant acts; and yet, these acts are precisely what each of us requires from the other if our lives and our relationships are to continue to unfold.

I am beginning to understand that it is in the face of our shared struggles that we find our solace, our hope and the strength to carry on.

There is immeasurable power in such knowledge, God's power.

...and to sense that I have touched upon that power has left me both wildly elated and crazily deflated.

I am, in this moment, the perfect union of two polar opposites.