Complicated Hope

Too hot.  Too cold.  Too short.  Too long.  Too tall.  Too wide.

Too painful.  Too close.  Too distant.  Too hard.  Too, too, too . . .

We live in extremes.  The “too” much of life, where we are forced to examine what is important verses what is necessary or needful.  That thing margin between “too” and “almost” where we wobble in comfort.

Yet, the extremes is where we often find the greatest satisfication.  Completing a task “too” difficult.  Climbing a hill “too” hard.

It is where we confront the “too” painful and find healing as well.

We run from “too” much pain and hide from “too” much truth because that bright shining light reveals our weaknesses and faults and exposes us to the greatest enemy of our self worth – ‘others’.

A friend has recently walked through a season of “too” much loss.  The tragedy of a fallen world has taken her son far too early and the same disease will take her daughter in the next few years.   It was hard to watch.  It was too close to reality.  It was a pain I was all too familiar with, a fear I had wrestled far too often.  She was living my nightmare.

Yet she lived it openly and honestly and in the “too” of her life, she brought light to the pain of grief and the relief of grace as well.   The mountain of grief in front of her she has used to move others to relationship with Christ.

She has taught us to moe from “too” to “thankful.”

What is too uncomfortable for you today?  What area is too painful that you shy away from repeatedly?  Could the “too” much pain actually bring healing?