Hope in the Body of Christ

I write a lot of posts in my head that never make it onto the screen. Sometimes I never find the time to transform my thoughts into words. Sometimes I steal the time, but the words just aren't there. I found this so frustrating when I first started blogging. Now I simply see it as God's way of weeding out some of the stuff that doesn't need to be recorded. My best received posts flow out almost effortlessly. I don't want to read too much into that---I surely can't claim to know or understand how much the Holy Spirit is involved here---but I don't think it's coincidence either.

When I started writing yesterday's post about my struggles with the dark thief, I really had no idea where it was going or why I was writing it. The images came, and so I narrated them. Last week I faced a few dark days of depression---a battle I've been fighting on and off since my youth---and the heaviness was still very fresh in my mind. I hesitated a bit before clicking on that orange "publish post" button, and to be honest, I considered deleting it all when I awoke this morning. Wouldn't my readers rather receive light, upbeat posts, and shouldn't I wait until I had one to give them? Who would want to be challenged by such a heavy, painful confession?

In risking my heart, I discovered that I am not alone in my experience with the darkness, and I learned that those lies whispered by the thief---of being alone, unloved, and unlovable---truly are lies. Some of those who stumbled upon my writing yesterday discovered the same. I was humbly overwhelmed by the tender, encouraging love notes I received from brave and beautiful women who shared their hearts and their suffering.

Suddenly I knew exactly why I wrote that post.

We are not alone. We are broken and battered, weary and worn. We have been tested and trampled and torn into tattered pieces. We have been robbed of our joy in spite of our blessings. But we are not alone.

We are bound by the Love of One who carries our crosses with us. Though we may not feel His presence in our most terrible moments, He bears the greater weight of our pain. We could not endure it without Him.

He offers us the healing gift of each other, a broken Body made perfect in its weakness.

Grace. Mercy. Love.