Embracing Your Awfully Amazing Life!
Today is June 25th and we are quickly approaching the one year anniversary of my son Quintin’s passing. God is graciously and generously opening doors of opportunity for me to share his story and touch lives which is amazing. I also have been without my son here for almost a year and that is awful. The fact that even have a website and organization around the issue of trauma and tragedy is awful and amazing. As I sat with these feelings of gratefulness and sadness this week I found myself unsettled. I felt as though embracing the sadness somehow made me ungrateful, or celebrating the good somehow diminished the importance of my son and the significance of loss. It was in this place that the Lord showed me that life is both awful and amazing all at once. That is often how life shows up. There are amazing things going on and awful circumstances that we need to navigate at the same time. I think as a whole we are not good at doing this and it creates traps that we can easily fall into.
So many people try to only talk about the awesome. Social media is filled with awesome. Everyone compares their life to the “awesome” life they see others living through social media. This pressure to always be awesome has kept so many people feeling like their lives can never be awesome because they may have some awful going on. For the ones who have convinced us that their lives are nothing but awesome, where do they go with their awful? This trap has taken many people out of the game completely. People hiding and denying their awful until it becomes too much for them to bare and they crash and burn in epic proportions. Some even end their lives because of this pressure.
The opposite is also true. When people experience awful, so many times they allow that to paint their entire life experience as awful. Losing someone you love or experiencing significant hurt or pain can cloud your vision and turn everything from color to shades of grey. I know people who report feeling guilty for laughing or enjoying themselves after losing someone they love because they think it is dishonoring to enjoy themselves after the loss of a loved one.
Do you see how these are both traps? Either extreme will lead to you to live a life that is unbalanced and lacking peace. I believe the place of peace is one where we embrace both the amazing and the awful that life throws at us. Where we acknowledge the awful and celebrate the awesome! I believe the measure that we are able to do this is directly proportionate to the measure of peace we will carry everyday. It is the highs and lows of our lives that help us to have a meaningful and rich experience on the earth. Its the awful that helps us to fully appreciate and celebrate the awesome. Its the awesome that refuels our tanks and gives us the strength to endure the awful.
So today I encourage you to acknowledge and embrace both! What is awesome about your life? I guarantee there are awesome things going on right now…..take some time to meditate on those things. What is a difficult or awful thing going on? Take some time to acknowledge those as well. Recognize that the awful things are making you a stronger and more capable person. Give thanks for both and move forward in confidence. Until next time…..
Much Love!
Kelli