Hey, everyone.
Sorry for not posting last Sunday. This week is literally my busiest week of the semester work-wise. I’m literally worked every night except for Thursday but that was because I was forced to take a break for at least one night of the week.
I was trying to get to writing this post before it all went crazy last Sunday but it all went crazy earlier than I thought.
I don’t want to rant about all the things that went wrong this week. (And believe me, a lot of things went wrong.)
Alas, that will do no one any good.
Instead, I just wanted to take a moment and let you know that whatever is going on, whatever seems to not be working out the way you think it should be, it won’t last forever and God will use it later.
Yeah, I’m sure you’ve seen and heard this before. And you know how much I despise clichés.
So, why am I telling you this?
Well, it’s for the both of us.
Personally, I don’t know what God is planning to do with my misfortunes. I can tell that some of them can be salvaged for an interesting story or two down the line, but most of them honestly seem like they’re all some kind of sick joke right now.
For some odd, messed-up reason, God is using His power to make my life miserable because He has the power to and I don’t, and He somehow gets a kick out of it.
I’m sure you’ve probably thought this before.
So, why am I telling you this?
Because it’s not true.
As hard as it may seem, God takes no pleasure in seeing His children in anguish.
He created a perfect Earth. We chose all the messed up things in it when we thought we knew better.
Well, we don’t.
But I do know this: Whatever you are going through, it will pass. And it does have a reason.
I’m telling you this to encourage you as well as myself.
I do the same thing when sharing music on social media. I’m self-conscious about what I listen to because I know a lot of people don’t have the same taste in music that I do.
But if a song hits me just right when I’m down, and I think it can help another, sure, I’ll share it. I may get some eyerolls but at least I know that I may have helped encourage someone. If it helped me of all people, maybe it can you too.
I don’t do it for the views or the reactions. I do it in hopes the same song that pushed me through the day can help push someone else.
I have yet to hear a story of if any of the songs I have shared have actually made an impact but I’m fine with that. I didn’t do it for me. If I did, I would have kept the song to myself.
If you’re a faithful follower and have been reading my blog for a while now, you know I’m not the most optimistic person in the world. I complain a lot.
This time, instead of standing on the other side and telling you it’ll be alright. I want to walk with you as we both get there together.
Yeah, I don’t 100% think it’ll all work out the way I just said it will. And I don’t expect you to either.
But we can darn sure try our best. Together.
Yeah, this week sucked. Things crashed. Hopes faltered. Naps ended.
But, hey, we’re both still alive and can choose to make things better.
It’ll be hard, especially for me ‘cause now I’ll have both my faithful readers remind me of this post for the next few months.
So, it’ll be a little easier for you than it will be for me.
Before I click “Publish,” I want to leave you with one final thought before you close your browser and go back to scrolling through Donald Trump hate comments on Facebook.
It’s something that has gotten me through a lot of rough stuff.
Before my grandfather passed almost two years ago, he used to always tell me a set of four words. And like hand sanitizer on a cut, I knew the pain of its existence was coming.
That is until he couldn’t tell me it any longer.
I am now left with the memory of him encouraging me to move past the crap in the bad times and to not stop working hard in the good.
Yeah, it was annoying and cliché when he would say it, but now that he’s not here to do that anymore, I miss it. Funny how stuff like that happens.
My grandfather used to always tell me to “Keep on keepin’ on,” especially when I tried explaining to him how I couldn’t.
I knew he was only trying to help me. I just didn’t like it because I knew that I actually could do it but didn’t want anyone to tell me to.
Now that I actually think that I can’t do it, it has helped me get out of some deep trenches. And he can’t even physically tell me it anymore.
Now that’s a taunt from the grave if I ever saw one.
In all seriousness, I say this to you now because I have since added this phrase to my email signature and constantly tell it to people when I try to encourage people in the way he encouraged me.
And it’s not just for you. It’s for me as well. If I tell you that I think you can make it, I should have to hold myself to that same standard.
We’re in this together.
God’s got us, so we got this.
Let’s keep on keepin’ on.