The battle began as any other , the circumstances perhaps different, yet the outcome much the same. I put out one arm for covering and used the other for the offensive attack. My body contorted as need be to help in this quest, yet no matter my efforts, outside help had to intervene. A hand reached out and pulled my coat on for my behalf! I should know, if I can not even get my coat on without a struggle, life in general is certainly not going to be a cake-walk. I have been thinking upon the word “struggle,” the past few days, and wondering if life really has to be this hard - this much of a conflict? Am I living in such a way, as to encourage the scrambling and fighting that seems to come to many of my days?
The definition of struggling does indicate some positives to doing it…”make great efforts with the body, try hard; work hard against difficulties.” These things are listed first in the dictionary and bring to mind that working hard brings a positive end many times. If you are coaching an athlete, you’d definitely want them to “make a great effort” in their sport. We certainly don’t want anyone to give up or be a quitter! At the bottom of the list we get more into the definitions that come to mind when we are in a struggle…”fighting, conflict, strive, labor, toil, cope.” These shed a more negative light on the effort we’re suppose to make. I have a website that I use for finding rhymes, synonyms, and antonyms, called rhymezone.com. In an attempt to find the opposite of struggling, I went to Rhymezone, and alas - there is none. I was hoping for at least an “un” on the beginning…so I could unstruggle.
The month of December is a time of struggling for me, and we are about to disembark again. Sometimes the conflict within our lives is not physical, not tangible - it may just be a little piece of shrapnel left in our hearts. There are struggles from the past that have left us wounded, but to the naked eye, these wounds are not detectable. We may not notice them ourselves, much like an old war wound that only aches when the weather changes. The storm coming, that makes me ache some, is called Christmas. I realize this is rather transparent of me, so I hope you don’t mind if “my eight layers are showing.” (Mini-wheat commercial)
Many years ago my family lived through a terrible storm that left us wounded. We struggled, “made great effort, worked hard against difficulties” and came out the other side. We did not come out unscathed, unhurt, or even fully in one piece. Whether that storm was a hurricane, tornado, or just a good rain, doesn’t really matter. We came through it, our wounds healed over and we have rebuilt. The fact that it hit during the Christmas season however, has left a scar that weeps a bit every year. Many of you may have lost a loved one around a holiday, or birthday, or other significant moments. You know the mixed emotions those marked occasions bring. In the midst of the joy and smiles, there is a twinge of pain as well.
Easter, Mother’s Day, the 4th of July and Thanksgiving, pass by without a twinge. Then it happens, I hear Christmas music! It is the barometer which reads my life’s weather pattern and I begin to ache. I went from “unstruggling” to struggling in less than a second and have been blue ever since. Now I realize that logically this makes no sense whatsoever, and I should just buck-up, get over it, move on, and just STOP IT! I can’t seem to get my logical mind, to override my fickle heart. Obviously, a little piece of shrapnel is left from that battle long ago. It healed over, but Christmas is here once again and my war wound is letting me know it.
If you are human, like me, and need a good surgeon for the shrapnel in your own life, I can refer you! His name is Jesus. He is the Great Healer! His love and God’s word tend to my wounds as no one else can. We should not attempt to treat ourselves for such struggles, as that would most likely lead to infection and possible loss of life. Most prescriptions are hard to decipher - the doctor’s hand writing atrocious! I am thankful that the Great Healer’s writing is so legible! “This is why we work hard and continue to struggle for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.”
1 Timothy 4:10 NLT
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