When people hurt me, I want to turn away. Who doesn’t? Most of us don’t WANT to stay in a situation where we’ve been hurt. And when we bump into people who’ve hurt us before, we’re not exactly delighted to see them.

FOR THE TIMES

You said too little

Or said too much

Something held you back

And the truth didn’t come out

You missed the opportunity

Or never even saw it

Have you ever felt like Lazarus? Dead + buried for 4 days, when Jesus says, “Lazarus, come out!” Man, what a day! He literally brought Lazarus back to life. What would you think if you saw this happen? Maybe we have a hard time imagining this actually happening. But Jesus does the same thing for us, when we believe. He raises us from the dead, He resurrects our lives.

I’m sorry.

What do we do if people won’t say it?

Do we hold it against them?

Do we wait for someone to humble themself?

Or do we decide to make a change for ourselves?

A quiet, internal shift of choosing to forgive.

The middle is our proving ground. It’s where life might hurt, or get tiring, or feel empty. Our eyes are on later, and we’re hoping that whatever it is that’s weighing us down might just fade away.

I used to think I was missing out on something by not being raised in a Christian home. The evangelical world taught me this — in their language, in their judgment, in the look on their faces. I felt unwhole, broken, kind of scrapped together, when I sat in a room with people who had grown up in the crowning family.

Betrayal is bitter. It could be a sibling, a spouse, or a friend. It could be a coworker or boss. It could be our child. It could be ourselves. Betrayal comes in many shapes. And the sting is deep when it happens to us.

It’s so easy to be consumed. On the urgent, on the loud, on what looks like a need. To have our thoughts spread out over so many different little fires. We’re stressed out, overwhelmed, breathing hard, just trying to stay in the game.