A tree in a story about a forest

Yes I know. I suck.
Ten days is quite a large break, I get it. Just because I let myself off the "Post-a-day" plan doesn't mean I get to ignore the entire blog, I know.
Let me tell you about my week.
Actually... suffice to say, it was busy. UBER busy. And now I'm sick because that's what my body does when stress round house kicks me in the face.
Yesterday was when I finally got a break from everything. I was trying to catch up some reading, and I suppose God saw it as a good time to do a little ninja work of his own.
Remember that Donald Miller book I was ranting about earlier? A Million Miles in a Thousand Years if you don't. Well I was reading it again, and once again some Truth came knocking on my door. Pounding, really.

Think about pain for a moment. Not "My week sucked and now I'm sick" pain. Real pain. "My parents are a getting a divorce" pain. "My best friend just went off the deep end" pain. "I just got dumped" pain.

Go to that place where you're most vulnerable, and hang out for a minute. If you can.

It's not easy, is it? It sucks.

Now think about this. You are one tree in a story about a forest. You are one character in a story about an entire planet full of characters. I'm not trying to belittle the pain, really I'm not. Pain is defining. Pain makes a person who they are. No one ever changed because they experience happiness every day of their life.

Miller talks about Job and how it's supposedly the oldest book of the bible. Remember Job? He's the one who's life REALLY sucked.
Understandably Job asks why.
"Go does not answer Job's question. It's as though God starts off his message to the world by explaining there are painful realities in life we cannot and will never understand. Instead, he appears to Job in a whirlwind and asks if Job knows who stops the waves on the shore or restores the snow in Wichita every winter. He asks Job who manages the constellations that reel through the night sky... He says I know what I am doing, and this whole thing isn't about you"

So maybe you're a tree with broken branches scattered around you. Maybe sap is running down your trunk and spring seems a thousand years away. But take a look around. You are not alone, and some day spring will come. That's something worth living for.