God & Life 🙏🏽

We have heard the expression make plans, and God laughs. Nothing is guaranteed. We live our best life, and deem ourselves “good”. Still, life happens any which way it wants, often turning on a dime.

Afghanistan, with an already sordid history of turmoil, is in grave danger. The Delta variant has propelled COVID-19 into another surge. Any given day, we can lose loved ones. 🤷🏻‍♀️

How do we survive this thing we call life, seemingly with a mind of its own? 🤔

My sister and I have been binging Netflix’s Greenleaf. 📺 We are introduced to a family that runs a church, trusting the Lord in all things. Even with stringent religious beliefs, and a huge sense of faith, the pendulum still swings. Amidst church visits, daily prayer, a God fearing lifestyle, darkness creeps in. Adultery, rape, murder, lying, stealing, abuse...you name it. 📝

No one is immune from reality rearing its often ugly head. Not the Greenleafs. Not any of us.☝🏽

So what is the takeaway? It is not about avoiding the darkness. We can’t. It’s about learning to navigate through it -- survive it and still come out standing. Death, divorce, financial loss, can hit us all. Depression, failure, illness. Take a number. 🔢

We cannot escape pain. Whether we go to church, or pray every day, or follow the so-called rules, it is always there.

What we CAN do is accept it. Accept what may come our way. Dark times will flitter in and out of our lives, and the umbrella of grief is large and all encompassing.

I am reading The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, in an effort to make sense of it all... 📖