How to find hope in the hard places

When I first started writing, I guess I thought it would be easy.

I imagined it was just like everything else one does each day—dishes, laundry, carpool… writing. But no, that has never been my experience.

Writing always costs me something.

In my experience, it’s has never been methodical or mindless or menial. Instead, when I sit down to write… I bleed. And because I mostly write about hard parts of my story—which are also hard parts of most women’s story—it requires me to revisit some of my greatest woundings.

I reconnect with the deepest parts of my pain… the places I don’t want to touch because they’re still raw… the memories too painful to remember… the heartache of rejection and betrayal… and it can be overwhelming.

These raw memories bleed out as my fingers tap the keys on the keyboard.

Like when I wrote Untangled. This book was documentation of the healing journey I walked through with God. In its pages, He asked me to share very personal parts of my story: Abuses. Failures. Fears. Shame. All of them.

He asked me to be transparent hundreds of miles out of my comfort zone. My hockey-fan-husband calls that leaving everything on the ice.  And in those moments I wanted to quit because it felt too vulnerable, but I chose to keep those pages open anyway… and write.

You probably don’t know this, but Untangled didn’t get picked up by a publisher for over a year. With each heart-breaking rejection from publishing houses, I began to feel hopeless. It felt like a rejection of me, and I began to doubt if I had heard God or not.

Was I really called to write?

I desperately wanted the pain I shared in its pages validated. I wanted my willingness to open myself up and share the hard things to be seen… and heard. And through those long months, I was struggling to hold out hope for any kind of publishing deal at all.

Hebrews 10:36 says… “Simply endure, for when you have done as God requires of you, you will receive the promise” (VOICE).

Simply endure. Two little words… one big command.

Honestly, sometimes it’s just easier to give up. The common response to hardship is often to give in, because simply enduring requires so much of us. Perseverance takes grit, and it means we have to tolerate, suffer, withstand, succumb, and put up with. And frankly… most of the time we don’t want to. Life is demanding enough and we crave the easy road.

We forget we can do hard things. We forget that God will give us the ability to have uncommon perseverance if we ask. And when we don’t ask, we get stuck living ordinary, powerless lives.

But you and I were made for uncommon living. And when we partner with Jesus, we can persevere through any curve ball life throws.  When we muster the grit and guts to stick it out, God promises a blessing on the other side.

That means no matter what comes our way, we can find hope in the hard places.

What are you in the middle of right now?

Where is God asking you to dig in your heels?

What battle has you holding on for dear life?

Please don’t give up the fight. Please don’t give into your fears or insecurities. More than any other time, the world needs to see what an uncommon woman looks like.

… We need a reminder there’s a pay-off for sticking it out.

… We need to remember we can do hard things.

… And we need an example of what it means to simply endure through challenges so we receive the blessing God promises.

Yes, we need you to #beUncommon.

Well Untangled found its way into a publishing house and God has met countless women in its pages. I’ve had the privilege to connect with some—many with my same story. My heart has been encouraged through emails and women sharing bits and pieces of their journey with me at events.

And even now, God continues to bless my perseverance by continuing to untangle my own heart—giving me the courage and confidence I need to choose uncommon ways of living.

Friend, God is ready to do the same in your situation.

Will you let Him?

xoxoxo…