Sometimes in life we are met with cold seasons. We are asked to endure a time of fasting. I can respond in one of two ways. The first and default is to meet the change with resistance; futilely clinging to the past, searching for any refuge and comfort from the strange situation into which I’ve been hurled. I don’t know what’s coming next so I choose to react, I choose to live out of the insecurity I am faced with. The result is constant anxiety and stress, it produces warped thoughts and irrational actions. As long as you feed the monster you will be paralyzed in fear.
The anxiety is fueled by fear that because uncomfortable change has come things will not and cannot be the same, happiness is gone, normalcy will have to be slowly and painfully redefined. Living like this it takes forever to return to homeostasis. So you can feed the monster...
...or you can choose to tell the monster to eat shit and die. You can choose to define your reality not by familiar comforts, not by status or routine, not even by your closest loved ones feelings for you, but define reality and identity by the one thing that remains. The constant of the universe, the unchanging character of God. The promise that he gives good gifts. This produces faith, instead of fear, faith that whatever is going on he is in control. Faith that whatever is coming next is worth the cost of what was lost. If nothing else this change is an opportunity to root your identity deeper in the love of Christ. That what he thinks of us is more important than anyone else’s opinion. This is the path I’m choosing to take.
