The last expressions of summer are clinging to the tops of
leaves and hanging still and warm in the humid September air, but autumn is
fighting its way into the scene with its bits of red and yellow and forecasted
cooler nights. Seasons are changing once again.
Two years ago on this day I was boarding a flight to Thailand where
I would live for the next 16 months. It seems strange now how quickly that
season came and went. I remember sitting in my house on a hot day in October,
missing the colors of fall and wishing for sweaters and hot tea. This year I’ll
get to experience them once again.
When I was in eighth grade, I thought that life would get
easier and better as it went on. I now wonder what kind of things I was
experiencing as a thirteen year old that would make me hope for an easier life!
I wish that I could go back and tell my thirteen year old self what I have
since learned. To quote a wise woman named Elaine: “Life doesn’t get any
easier; but trusting Jesus does.”
Oh how many times I have experienced that! And yet so often I
still hope for ‘easy’. I still wish for ‘better’. Jesus told us that life would
be difficult: “In this world you will have trouble…” (John 16:33). It doesn’t
get much clearer than that.
But Jesus didn’t end the conversation there. He didn’t say, “Yep,
life is gonna suck, sorry! Good luck!” His next words are a call to us to trust
Him: “take heart! be courageous! I have overcome the world.” In His triumph, we
have victory as well, and in that we can hope. We can look at the trials, and
the fact that life just isn’t getting
easier, and know that in the end He still wins and thus so do we.
Trusting Jesus doesn’t naturally
get any easier. It isn’t something we obtain as we sleep. It takes hard work, a
lot of prayer, and repeatedly committing our lives into His hands and letting ourselves
let go of control. It’s a choice, but it’s one that does get easier as we practice it. I think I need to practice it
more, because life is tough and I find myself wishing things were easy more
than asking God to help me trust Him.
Take heart, Jules. Be courageous! Your God is on your side,
and what good things He has coming for you.
