Perspective

I picked Secret Life of Bees as my beach read. I really enjoyed the book; I can't believe I hadn't read it before.

One excerpt in particular stood out to me:

"In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional. I was the girl abandoned by her mother. I was the girl who kneeled on grits. What a special case I was"  (Sue Monk Kidd, Secret Life of Bees p 278)

It reminded me of a conversation I had recently with an aunt, that sometimes when our life is hard, we forget that everyone else has had their share of tribulations as well. I am blessed to have friends with whom I can be open and honest, and vice versa. There have been times where we hear about the other has had to go through, and we say man, I don't know how you do it. We have divorced parents, depressed sisters, terminally ill relatives, friends who have been raped; we have failed tests, we have bombed track meets, we have cheating boyfriends, we have questioned God, we have had hookup regrets, and we have wondered why life was still living. Everyone struggles, and once you realize that, it is easier to look outside of yourself.

I don't remember where I heard it first, but I think I read somewhere that because Christ died for us, and rose again, we are no longer struggling to be free; rather we are free to struggle. We already have our freedom - we no longer have to live in agony, in regret, in fear, in pain - we now have the chance to really feel. Jesus never promised that life would be easy; we were told that we must deny ourselves, that we would be persecuted, that we would face trials, that in this world we would have trouble. But in the end He says, "I have overcome the world" What a promise.