You might be saying life sucks right now. I know I am. I feel like every time I go to write my mind instantly wanders to things I have been struggling with. Although I never have thoughts of giving up on life, I often look back and remember times when it felt as if things couldn't possibly be better. The times when laughter was infectious, anger was distant, fear didn't have a hold of me, and breathing was light.

I say none of those things to discourage you but to encourage you. Encourage? With those words? NO way.

Wait. Pause. Breathe

What if we changed the way we see our struggle?

See what I am proposing is that you look up from your disaster of a life and recognize that this life wasn't designed for perfection. The struggles we face are beautiful. When we look in the mirrior, sometimes we will see failure. There will be days when hurting helps and helping hurts. Why? Because where is the growth if we never have struggle?

Life is about the voyage.

It carries us from one thing to the next. And when we get off of our ship we have days of bliss and days of great distress. But we get back on the ship. We sail. And we fight. The wind, the rain, the waves, they all fight against us, but we find our triumph in being anchored in the sails of Jesus.

He steps off the boat with us, he fights the wind with us, he creates the storms because he knows what it takes for the human mind to let down the guard we put up and rely on others. God designed us to be interconnected with him just as much as we are interconnected with the people He created. And it never fails, he always has the perfect people lined up just waiting to fight your battles with you.

So stop facing your struggles alone. When life sucks, point your sails windward and face your challenges head on. But don't do it alone. Grab a friend for the journey.

And remember, life is a voyage.