MIDWEEK MESSAGE – November 6, 2019

I received a call the other day from a friend in Miami who I had not heard from in over 15 years. Her husband of 17 years had told her that he wanted a divorce and she was devastated. It’s always hard to comfort someone who has lost someone they love and their life is about to change in ways that are unknown and so scary.

It feels like life is over and her question to me was how she could survive it. I am not a therapist but I am in recovery and the lessons I have learned from it, I believe, can help anyone.

The primary lesson is that we have to keep moving. We need to take one step after another, get up when we want to stay in bed, do the next thing in front of us even if its as simple as taking a shower and brushing our teeth. I told her that the way we get through any difficulty is one step, one minute, one day at a time and to remember that we are not going through it alone.

I believe God is always with us – including during the times we feel so lost that it seems we have been abandoned. I can look back at all the times in my life that I felt I could not go on – when just breathing was a challenge. How did I do it, taking it one baby step at a time, taking action (any positive action), reaching out to be of service to another, and to remember that God was with me through it all.

Life happens – sometimes it is not as we had planned or as we would like, but I do know that it was through the challenges in my life that I grew spiritually and emotionally the most. It was also those times in which I grew closer to my Higher Power and learned that its not enough to have faith – we also must trust that “God will not take us where God’s grace will not keep us.”

Quote of the Week

“I do believe that when we face challenges in life that are far beyond our own power, it’s an opportunity to build on our faith, inner strength, and courage. I’ve learned that how we face challenges plays a big role in the outcome of them.”
Sasha Azevedo