When You are Fighting a Lonely Battle

What do you say when there are no words?  When tragedy strikes and your tummy twists in knots, all for a hurt that is not your own, a hurt that is owned by someone you love.  Shockwaves course through your veins because that is how it works when you love someone, right?

I’ve been on both sides of the fence, the hurt and the hurting for, and I feel like I should have some insights, some great cure and remedy to make all that hard and awkward easier.  But the truth is, those painful trials in life are still hard…and awkward.

When I said goodbye to my infant daughter, nearly 10 years ago now, I was thrown into a grief I had never known or expected.  My world became small and dim and lonely.  Emotions that I didn’t know how to explain or process took over.  And I felt alone.
Surrounded by friends and family that loved me well, their words were a salve to my hurting heart but I couldn’t help but feel, deep down inside, like they didn’t understand.  They hadn’t been there.  They had no idea.  How could they?

Sometimes we fight lonely battles.  Sometimes there are marriage struggles that we can’t rightly talk about in front of our friends. Sometimes there are family hurts that aren’t resolved by pouring out our words into the open air, and sometimes it is true that no one in our circle knows what our rejection, our loss, our inadequacy, our hurt feels like.  They’ve never walked that road.

And we feel lonely.

Continue reading at Sweet Jesus Ministries.

 

Lonely battles bring a hollow ache.  Sometimes life affords stories we can’t immediately share.  Even when surrounded by loving friends and family, there are weights they weren’t made to carry for us.  

I’m beginning to learn that those lonely places, those most solitary battles, offer the opportunity for me to see Christ more clearly than ever.  I hope you’ll join me at Sweet Jesus Ministries today. ~Katie