I’m sorry. But I gotta keep it real.
My brain won’t have it any other way. There’s a season in a woman’s life that may breeze in and out on a daisy-laden path. But today, it’s slamming my mind and body with the chaos of a hurricane and the slow inside-out burn of a volcano.
I must warn my male friends – if you’re still here – to exit now or summon the courage to proceed on tiptoes. And I do apologize, because just when you think you understand women, we change again. It’s like trying to stabilize tectonic plates that shift under the power of the sun, moon, gravity, and all that bubbling lava in the earth’s core.
“The Change.”
That’s what my mom’s generation called it, if they mentioned it at all. What an ordinary word for a sometimes bizarre paradigm shift of body, mind and spirit. And here I am, in this holistic onslaught, hoping to tap out rational thoughts and readable text onto my laptop.
My mind is bouncing like a toddler-filled trampoline. It’s stretched tight, pummeled and pinging, clashing and screaming. Oh, and my palms and face? Rosy red. The receptors of my spontaneous combustion.
This season rushes in alongside another common change. Just when my grown kids are settling down with their families, I’m making decisions for my aging and stubborn, but lovable mom. It pains me to see her muddling through her own confusion, fear, and physical limitations. It’s beyond my control. I can’t fix it for her and that hurts.
A friend – a brave, Christian brother – reminded me that these parallel changes are no accident. They are in God’s timing and will for me. Therein, I find hope.
God is not random. He knows our every manic moment and he’s got us. He wants us to have peace. He wants us to grow in wisdom and faith even in overwhelming challenges of body, soul, and spirit.
But it’s not always easy, is it?
Any drastic life change, even a positive one – such as marriage, a household move, or a new job – can be frightening and disorienting. Some days it’s a raw choice, to reach beyond our feelings and trust that God is not only with us, but he’s working for us. Here’s encouragement from my reading this week:
“When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isaiah 43:2
If you’re troubled in mind, body, and spirit, please call out to God. He knows your name, he knows your voice, and he knows your struggle. Rest in him and then call a friend. We weren’t meant to do this alone.
Hope, grace and peace to you in your season of change.
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