:: Tuesday's Tea With Me ::

I was talking with one of my best friends the other day. We were reminiscing about all the harrowing things we have been through in our 30 years of life and how they have all turned out to be catalysts. Between the two of us there have been some very painful and traumatic experiences. And also some choices we've made that really cost us. And I imagine that if I were to gather even a handful of friends I have grown up with, that there would be so many many trials of which to share. I know I have had friends that have passed away, some that have had cancer, car accidents, lost their homes, gotten pregnant sooner than they'd like, I mean... we ALL have something, if not many challenges in life. 

That's life right? Some of us got married young, some of us have been divorced, some of us have never been married and want to so badly, while others are married and would sure enjoy those days of singleness and freedom. Some of us are pulling our hair out because we have little muchkins running everywhere, and some of us are pulling our hair out because we haven't been able to conceive a little munchkin. And I have had several close girlfriends miscarry and it just tore my heart out for them. 

I personally have had a surgeon cut the wrong part of me during a routine operation and I nearly died. I spent years healing from that. That sheer physical pain was utterly unbearable. In my mid-20s I lost someone very dear to me to a drunk driver and saw his crushed body beneath a yellow sheet on TV. Life is really painful. And I think I have said this before but its worth saying again.... You know what you do with pain? You sit through it. I've grown to see pain as free college. Truly. If it's painful, it means you are the lucky winner of an opportunity to grow deeper and wider.

Who wants to reach our forties or fifties and be shallow? Still partying and aimlessly skipping from friendship to friendship, relationship to relationship? I don't. I want to be deep. Which means... I can count on more hardships. I find that each of these experiences has taught me to interact with and rely on God in a new way. 

Like my friend said, 

"When I get worried or overwhelmed I try to reflect back and see all the issues God has been with me through and the outcome of those.  I realize that He has delivered me out of every issue without fail. And His outcome is always sweet."