Beauty in the Hard

I had been been processing this blog for a few weeks and looking for a name, and last week i heard my pastor in his sermon say, beauty in the hard and it stuck with me.

As i look back on my 29 years of living i find a lot of hard, Not fitting in at a young age, falling into an addiction at the age of 11, fighting for 17 years to find the beauty in the hard. for years i can look back and tell you i did not see much beauty in the hard, I can also tell you that many years i ran from the hard because how could there truly be beauty in it.

We live in a society where we see hard as bad, so i am positive i am not the only one that sees hard and their first instinct is to run in the oposite direction. As i look back on my hard days i cant help but look back on Jesus's prayer in the garden of gethsemane, even though my hard days have no comparision.

"Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

Luke 22:42-44

Many times i look at Jesus and His 100% God side rather than His 100% human side. I believe in this moment it shows quite a bit of His human side. He was terrified, deep down He would have prefered to save the world in any other way, but His prayer was, Your will be done.

As much as i ran, i can look back and many times see a desire deep within for Jesus's prayer to be my own, because there was very little beauty in the life i was living.

If i could sum up my lesson in this chapter of life it would be, i can do hard things. In the past year or so as i have tried my best to allow myself to see the beauty in hard with the Grace of God, I can say God has opened my eyes and held my hand

I dont know what your story looks like or where you are today. you may be trying to gather the courage to walk through a hard journey that is in front of you, walking through hard, or at the other end, but i want to let you know that there is beauty and grace and hope within it and a light at the other end