I should probably start by saying that this title is not meant to be a cry for help. It is meant to convey something that I have come to realize as being very true…sometimes life does suck.
I feel like I have continuously received bad news over the past number of months. Bad news about world events. Bad news about families being torn apart. Bad news about tragic accidents. Bad news about people living in pain, both physical and emotional. I continue to hear these stories and am broken at how awful things are in our world today.
I think part of the reason that I take these stories so hard is because so often I am unable to relate. My life and my circumstances have been pretty good. I haven’t come face to face with tragedy or experienced by world falling down around me. Because of this, I feel very hopeless when faced with the Life Sucks moments that I hear about.
As a Christian, am I allowed to even say those words: Life Sucks? All to often we think that we can or should only ever talk about and reflect on the good things in life.
“God is good, all the time.”
“God has protected me.”
“God has blessed me so much.”
These things are all true, but we need to remember that God also invites us to live in the midst of the crappy, brokenness of life as well. We are not to live defeated though, but as ones who have hope, because in Jesus, we can find hope in even the most dire of situations.
So in your Life Sucks moments, don’t ignore the feelings of pain that you may feel. It is okay to acknowledge that yes, sometimes life sucks. And yes, we need to process the pain that comes with these terrible moments. I think of Job who processed the pain of losing everything he owned as well as his family. I think of King David who time after time cried out to God in anguish and pain, saying, “God, life sucks.” These men were being real with God and real in their pain and struggles. They weren’t trying to hide things and sweep them under the rug.
Even in the middle of their Life Sucks moments though, these two men, acknowledged that God was walking through the pain with them.God hadn’t abandoned them or left them to fight their own battles. God was walking side by side with Job and David.
If you are someone who is faced with a Life Sucks moment, don’t run away from it. Feel free to express your feelings. Cry out to God from your deepest place of despair. Even Jesus himself cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). That seems like a very real expression of very raw emotion.
If you are someone who hasn’t necessarily faced a Life Sucks moment, I want to challenge to walk alongside those who are in the middle of them. Listen to their story, not to fix things, but to weep together. Meet a practical need that someone in pain may need to have met.
Christians are going to have moments where life is great and moments where life isn’t so great. Be the hands and feet of Jesus in each of those moments. Be real with who God has created you to be. Be real with the struggles and challenges you face. Be real with sharing the victory moments as you see Jesus breaking though into our broken world.