Is it okay to struggle?

“I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

I have seen struggles, I have had struggles. Bad things happen. I am sitting here listening to Chris Stapleton sing “Broken Halo’s”. In it he says “…don’t go asking for all the answers, don’t go asking Jesus why. We’re not meant to know all the answers. They belong to the by and by.”

If you’ve never met my brother, let me describe him. Picture 6’7” and 285 pounds. I can’t reach all the way around him when I hug him. He is imposing. Now picture that we once had to tell our daughter not to tell him that she liked his Jeep, we were afraid he would just give it to her. He would give anyone he loves anything he has. Now picture about 40 tattoos. One of those is on the top of his head. It’s a zipper opening to reveal a brain. Crazy tattoo but a cool story.

My mom had Parkinsons and at the end of her life it was rough. It’s a brain disorder that takes over the body. My brother offered to give her doctor his brain. Just take it. He was totally serious. The tattoo is evidence. Unfortunately, when she died, he struggled. My brother sort of left for a while.

He eventually came across someone who needed a kidney. He didn’t know her. He just worked at the same place as her husband. Dave found out she needed one and he offered. He turned out to be a match and that’s all it took. It’s a tough procedure on both the recipient and the donor. In recovery he looked up through tears and said “I did this for mom”. Funny thing about the recipient. She had someone draw a picture of a zipper opening on her side to reveal a kidney. I asked my brother after that if he had started talking to God again. He said something I will never forget. “I never stopped talking to God. I’ve just been yelling at Him for 10 years.”

Can you imagine a better picture? I grew up Southern Baptist. Prayers were supposed to be kind of pretty. Eloquent even. What if God can handle our anger? What if He can handle our questions? That would make struggling with anything seem a bit easier. The only exception to that is if we stop going to Him with whatever is on our heart.

I see struggle everywhere. Mothers Day was yesterday. My wife LOVES being a mom. There are a lot of reasons for her to be happy on that day. But she does miss Jordy. That day reminds her even more than usual. The worst trick is that when she feels joy, she simultaneously feels guilty for it. No way to help her through that. She’s got to walk right through it. She will for the rest of her life.

This may sound like a depressing post, but its not. He has overcome the world. He makes peace attainable even if we must continually reach to hold onto it. He uses hard things to reach people who are hard to reach. Struggles make us look to each other. They also make us look AT each other. Ever feel like your heart is actually bleeding? We may be God’s intervention for someone. Struggles make us look at Him.

What is your primary struggle? Or struggles?

If you were looking at your life from the outside, do you see ways He has used it?

Think of the people around you. Is there someone God may want you to help?

Challenge: Hang in there. Take heart. We don’t get perfect here. We only learn to long for it and hold onto peace in the meantime.

Rick Claiborn