DAY SEVEN

Am I making this harder than it needs to be?

For months straight, our closet lightbulb was burned out. We live in an old house, and removing the globes on our ancient fixtures felt like an undertaking. As annoying as it was to navigate our closet in the dark, my husband and I grew accustomed to it. It’s interesting how quickly we adapted to the darkness. We used our phone flashlights or inconveniently brought clothes out into the bedroom for a better view.

I can easily do this with my pain. It feels too laborious to bring my troubles into the Light, so I keep burying them deep. Like the darkness in our closet, we start to work around our pain—avoiding, staying busy, window dressing, building walls. But before we know it, we’ve accidentally built walls between us and God.

My husband and I eventually installed a new lightbulb and immediately, our situation improved—leaving us asking why we waited so long to do a simple something that helped us.

Some of us are neglecting the simple something before us. One of our most obvious and ever available lifelines is talking to the One who runs all of this. The Shepherd of our soul sees us in our entirety and knows depths of our hearts that we cannot possibly plumb. Our Creator and Sustainer knit us together with feelings; might He be trusted to hold those feelings?

Jesus, I’m hurting. We must not complicate it. We have no need to dress it up. There is no pretending with God, and we find great freedom in that.

Come near to God, and He will come near to you. Ask Him to open your mouth to Him. God will revolutionize your prayer life—and all else along with it. But I also wonder if opening your heart to God will open your heart to others. Others that you need; others that need you. I wonder if God has placed a trustworthy friend near you. Step into God’s marvelous Light by telling somebody who loves God that you are struggling. Ask God to show you whom to tell.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

John 1:1-5 (NIV).

Prayer. Lord Jesus, I am in pain. Help me talk to You more than anyone. And Father, send me a friend who loves You.

Application. Today, I will tell somebody near me that I’m hurting.