Sometimes every day seems to be a struggle. As soon as one fire is out, another one starts.
For us, it has been financial, spiritual, and relational struggles. It has affected everything. And the flames are high.
Learning to let go of all that is in the past – our memories, experiences, training, and pain – isn’t easy. And it isn’t getting easier with any passing day.
We are going through a transition that was not desired, but is necessary. Our lives have been turned upside down as we face the reality of our seemingly insurmountable situation.
Our journey is taking us from one way of thinking to a new one, and trying to unlearn decades of teaching into a newer, more peaceful way of doing things is a battle in our minds.
The battle is in the mind…remember?
I wrote an article regarding the location of the new mine field sweeping our world today. It isn’t in the form normally thought of as a war zone.
Being an arm-chair observer, our hearts and money goes out to those in need, but it can only help them so far. The destruction still faces those victims in their reality.
Yes, physical fighting is being felt and experienced throughout certain areas of our world. Losing housing, food, jobs, and everything owned is being dealt with over and over again through the onslaught of natural disasters elsewhere.
Being an arm-chair observer, our hearts and money goes out to those in need, but it can only help them so far. The destruction still faces those victims in their reality.
Yet every day the observer experiences none of it because they have lost nothing but the aide they could give. They still have their jobs, income, family, possessions.
But there is another battle raging. It is in our minds. Our emotions, our stressors come from what we are experiencing each moment of our lives. For some, it doesn’t abate before another attack is fresh on its heels.
Let me explain…
In our world, the family has lived together for years. Our entire lives are intertwined, from our possessions, to our personal lives.
But as the children are growing, it is time to let go. Changing our relationships, separating our housing, and trying desperately to keep the peace between us in the process has been a challenge, to say the least.
Returning to work to increase income has thwarted the comforts of retirement as the cost of living has escalated beyond anything our country has seen. No amount of retirement can compete with the increase of food and necessities. No government promises will fix what is broken. So peace for many of us has been shattered.
Changing our relationships, separating our housing, and trying desperately to keep the peace between us in the process has been a challenge, to say the least.
And a major shift in our spiritual life has created another twist in the story. What was once called home for decades has had the wheels falling off. Seeking stability in that which is unchanging has uprooted our comfort in what was once thought to be unchangeable.
And while the ultimate end is to learn to let go of the worry and embrace life as it comes, it is very different than our Western mindset that is determined to always know the “why” and “how” everything will turn out. The concept of controlling what occurs in our lives is being stripped of us as we struggle to settle into a new way of thinking.
In the end, it is all good.
But in the meantime, it is a battle. The unending, increasing trials, from unexpected financial emergencies to the effort to ignore the idiosyncrasies that have bothered os relational over the course of 15+ years is now nearly impossible to overlook. So the inevitable verbal clashes and trickle down effects on the remaining children repeats itself in the mind and heart of the recipients.
…it is also a sign that we are starting our journey on the right path. Because if it were easy, there would be no conflicts. And without conflicts, there is no chance of gaining perfection…For a diamond is not made brilliant and of great value by remaining a rough stone.
Yet, in the end, it is all there to help us learn to lean on the One in control. To stop worrying about the future and learning to humble ourselves as we endeavor to reframe our circumstances in a more charitable fashion.
That being said, it is also a sign that we are starting our journey on the right path. Because if it were easy, there would be no conflicts. And without conflicts, there is no chance of gaining perfection.
For a diamond is not made brilliant and of great value by remaining a rough stone. It must first undergo the cutting off of that which is not perfect. Then undergo the finer polishing to make it perfect.
So, too, must we undergo such things. Our ego, pride, sense of importance, security in our own abilities, anything and everything that does not return us to the life filled with hope and peace must be removed.
A painful process, but necessary if we want to attain something far greater than this world has to offer.
And that can only happen when we get out of the way and let God lead us like a little child. Learning to accept that which comes from above as for our own good.
Right now, for us and for many others, that letting go begins in the mind where our stubbornness refuses to let go of the control. It is time to put down the swords, find ways of destressing, praying, staying focused on the right path, and remain in silent acceptance of all that comes our way.