Our family has known seasons that were rich. They were joyous, full of easy relationship, dripping with gratitude and beauty. I felt like I was cheating at life, and when asked how I was I would respond, “So good that my life feels like I’m drinking a pina colada on a white sand beach.”
This is not one of those seasons.
But not because there’s nothing to be thankful for because there is so much to be thankful for!
But the grind is relentless and the fatigue of it after several years is set in. One of the ways we are combatting the hopelessness that sneaks in the back door of constant grind is planning a great adventure. We have found something fun to look forward to and a vision so big it inspires profound hope. It whispers, “It won’t always be gray and heavy. You won’t always be sore and exhausted.”
We have put a multiple month adventure on the calendar to another continent. We have picked large cities and lifetime bucket list jaunts on which to go. We are looking at Galapagos and Machu Picchu with kids that will freshly be in junior high. It is exciting to think about and inspires wonder in my soul. Am I really a person that would do that? I wonder if I’m living someone else’s best life…someone that has a better best life than the one I thought I deserved. The vision is so great I can’t keep from being hopeful when I think about it.
I wonder why I can’t be this hopeful about the eternity to come. Let this present struggle, this present suffering we are experiencing spur me on to dwell in the GREATER that lies ahead. But the idea of training my mind to dwell there is even tiring. I’m worn. And I might be hanging on to this shadow of travel adventure which is just a glimpse of the great adventure that lay ahead for me. I’ll take whatever shadow or glimpse or whisper I can get.
These little troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like nothing.
2 Coringthians 4:17
Practicing Yes 