Tell the Truth

Parenting is hard. Being married is hard. Being single is hard. Getting up early and exercising is hard. Going to bed early so you can get up to exercise is hard. Eating healthy is hard. Praying is hard. Managing a healthy work-life balance is hard. Being nice to people is hard. Being nice to yourself is hard. Or put more simply in the words of singer-songwriter David Bazan, “It’s hard to be a decent human being.”

Now, if you have spent 1.5 seconds on the internet, you have been bombarded with short clips of attractive and seemingly successful people telling you that life isn’t hard. If you click on their affiliate link, you can learn the secret to an easy life. Or you have come across the other extreme, the modern stoic type who tells you to suck it up, buttercup, and do the hard thing.

I have clicked on the links and tried to suck it up and found that life is still hard. So, is there something wrong with me? Why is life easy for them and so hard for me?

I bet you feel this tension too.

But what if there is another option?

What if instead of trying to life hack our way out of the hard things or grind ourselves through them, we just need to tell the truth? What if we just need to name the hard things and let them be hard and come to accept that it is ok that life is hard?

One of Jesus’ most famous invitations does not sugarcoat the fact that life is hard. He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

If we try to convince ourselves that life isn’t hard, we keep Jesus and his invitation at an arm’s length.  

So, today I invite you to PAUSE.

Take a few breaths in and out. In. Out.

PRAY. “Holy Spirit, quiet my body, mind, and soul as I pause today.”

PAUSE.

TELL THE TRUTH. Name the hard things in your life. Don’t self-audit. Don’t shame yourself. Just name the hard things.

PAUSE. How does it feel to tell the truth?

PAUSE.

REFLECT. Jesus doesn’t promise to take the hard things away. But he does promise to walk through the hard things with us, to even carry the majority of the burden.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29–30)

PAUSE.

What does it look like to walk with Jesus in the hard things today?

PAUSE.

Receive. Jesus knows life is hard. He does not shame you or judge you. Rather, he invites you to bring those things with him and let him walk with you through them. May you take up Jesus’ yoke today.

Grace and Peace.