Hidden Hardships

Tonight, as I speak with or hear about various friends going through deep hardships, especially with their home situations and children, my heart breaks. These are incredible, loving people that have been dealt a really rough hand. I can’t help but wonder what God seeks to accomplish through their story. I’m sure there are deeper plans that we could never begin to understand or desire, but as I hear about divorce, children being pulled from parents out of spite, little ones diagnosed with lifelong diseases, etc., my heart hurts. It feels heavy.

While we all have hardships, these deep points of pain are not typically shared. They’re not talked about nor revealed to everyone. They’re the hidden parts of the people I trust and with whom I’ve grown very close. Even the deepest hardships I’ve been experiencing lately have been largely hidden to the world. It makes me wonder what everyone else is concealing. What weight is grasping hold of them while their weary spirit is trying to crawl ahead? What hardship has completely wounded them?

The weight of tonight’s discussions was difficult, but they all resounded in trust in the Lord and accepting His will. They resulted in a deepening of faith and further surrender despite the grueling battles they’ve had to face. It’s not easy to lay down our hardships, but the Lord uses them to enter our hearts and draw us near to Him.

Lord, thank you for the hardships and pain, even when I fail to see how you are working in them. Please help me to be gracious to every person I encounter, for I realize I don’t know the weight of their pain or the severity of their wounds. Help me to be more loving, more understanding, more forgiving. Jesus, I pray for all those experiencing suffering right now. Help them to know your love and that you are with them while they carry their cross. You will never leave their side. You understand their pain more than anyone. Let them confide in you. Provide them comfort through their sorrow.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. On that day you will not question me about anything. Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” – John 16:20-24