A hard truth...

There's a hard truth I need to share today. One that people who are hurting don't typically want to hear. 

Ready?

When you're wounded, when your soul hurts and your spirit aches, when your heart is cracked or even shattered, when you're in a waiting period and trusting God to provide, to intervene, to help, to step in - do you know what the best thing to do is?

Help someone else. 

It's true. There's something so powerful about turning our focus off ourselves and our own pain, however justified it might be, and reaching out to someone else who is hurting or in need. Because they are everywhere. You're not alone and neither are they. 

That's part of the reason for this new blog, to  be honest.

It doesn't even have to be something that big or time consuming, though. It could simply mean giving a homeless man a $5 or a sausage biscuit from McDonald's. It could mean complimenting the lady in the elevator with the cute shoes or the pretty haircut. It could mean babysitting for that stressed, overworked single mom upstairs in your apartment complex. It could mean starting that blog YOU'VE been meaning to start. It could mean buying the unappreciated janitor in your office building a candy bar. It could mean thanking your co workers for their good attitude or your boss for believing in you. It could mean buying a new toy from Wal-Mart during your next grocery run and donating it to a daycare center or a shelter. It could mean gathering up those old novels collecting dust on your bookshelf and sending them to nursing homes or hospitals or school libraries that need donations. It could mean finally sitting down to write that "thinking of you" card you meant to send to your friend across the country months ago.

It simply means getting out of yourself for a moment and investing in someone else. 

Seriously - if you're wallowing in your hurt, stop for one moment and just scan Facebook statuses - ten bucks says you'll find a status from someone who is hurting as badly as you or maybe even worse. Maybe you're stressing hard over a financial situation. And then you see someone who is losing a battle with cancer. Ouch. Priorities shift, even for one moment, and your desperate prayers for yourself are put on hold temporarily while you pray for someone else. 

And the fog is lifted in those moments. 

I dare you to try it and prove me wrong.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't about competition. Everyone's pain is their own and is real to them. Whether that's loss or grief or death or pain or separation or health or finances or career changes or sorrow or whatever - it's big and its real to that person experiencing it. The worst thing you can tell someone who is hurting is "it could be worse". Well of course it could be. But what IS is pretty bad, too. Don't down play their hurt - but do encourage them to use their hurt for good. 

See now? That wasn't so bad. The truth gets a little easier to swallow every day :)