This past week was one of the roughest I’ve ever encountered. The Tennessee weather change had me sicker than a dog, and I was just recovering enough to bury myself in studying for exams the following week. Then I got the call. It’s funny how one text, one call, one email -- one second, one minute, one day -- can change your life forever. No, not ha-ha funny. I mean scary funny. Sick funny.
As we get older, we fall victim to the weight of a relentless world. We’ve all been there -- a hectic week comes and when you finally get everything locked down and are able to take a breath -- your world turns upside down all over again. So what do we do? We trudge on.
When I was growing up, my favorite meercat/warthog duo gave me a phrase that I chose to live by: “When the world turns its back on you, you turn your back on the world.” Since, I’ve lived, loved and given up on this philosophy. It took longer than I’d like to admit until I realized this mantra wasn’t a successful one, and at the end of it all, I was left feeling completely alone. So what did I do? I trudged on.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve turned my back on God. Countless times of me thinking “How could you do this to me? I thought you loved me?” have caused me to wander away from my faith. Time and time again, I’ve ended up in a place that I shouldn’t be -- and yet, when I decide to turn back around, my God is waiting with open arms.
"But in their distress they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and they sought Him, and He let them find Him." 2 Chronicles 15:4.
It wasn’t until recently that I realized even when I leave God, he chooses not to leave me. He’s ever present in the family I’ve been given, the friends I’ve chosen, and the life that I live to date. Because of this, I can seek solace in the first breath I take in the morning, because I get to live another day. I can find hope in the smile of a friendly face on my way to school, and in the hug of a stranger in the ICU while I prepare for the worst. I can look up to the sky and admire the work of a higher power within a simple rainbow over a funeral tent. After all, that’s what it’s all about, right?
Alanis Morissette said it well:
“And life has a funny way of helping you out when you think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up in your face.”
But 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 said it best:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Sometimes, those who wander are lost. But that’s okay, as long as we always find our way home again.
