When You’re Facing a Strange Time In Your Life

“This is a strange time in our life,” I shared with my husband on a recent day away. He quickly concurred.

A Strange Time

Everything in our life is changing. Nothing is as it was, and nothing will be the same next year.

• Our children are striking out on their own, two already “adulting” hours from home.
• Our youngest is entering his last year of high school and will be leaving the nest soon.
• Our girl with special needs graduated from high school, so other programs and care ideas are being tried, even as her anxiety and inappropriate behavior increases.
• Retirement for my husband is in the offing, which will require moving out of our house and the place we’ve called home for more than 20 years.
• My writing seems ready to take off one minute, then stalls out the next.

Maybe this is what a mid-life crisis feels like. I’m not sure, but I do know it’s a confusing, isolating time.

I’m feeling unsettled, and it’s made writing difficult. It’s made loving others difficult. Frankly, it’s made me lethargic. I want to run and hide from the demands of life.

A Bigger and Better Plan

Oh, to curl up in my bed with a captivating novel, ignoring all the hard change happening around me! But that would be missing out on all God intends for me and through me.

Sometimes circumstances make us want to run and hide, but then we'd miss out on all God intends for us and through us. Click To Tweet

Of course none of this change is happenstance. It’s all part of a bigger plan. A plan God put in place long before the calendar ever turned to 2018.

Choose To Trust

And I have a choice in all of this. To remain self-focused, throwing myself a pity party: wishing for what was and worrying about what is to come. Or I can choose to trust God and push through the frustration, confusion, and fear to see all that is good and lovely about today. To embrace all God has for me and wants to do through me. 

When strange times come, we can remain self-focused, wishing for what was and worrying about what is to come. Or we can choose to trust God and push through the frustration, confusion, and fear to see all that is good and lovely about today. Click To Tweet

It almost always boils down to trust. Can I trust God? All I need to do is ask myself the following questions; God’s Word reveals the answers.

Is my God trustworthy? Yes! “Those who know your name trust in you
because you have not abandoned those who seek you, Lord“ (Psalm 9:10).

Does He love me? Yes! “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Does He have a plan for my life and for the lives of all my children? Yes and yes! “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Certainly, God is trustworthy. But in this strange time of confusion and uncertainty, will I surrender my concerns and trust Him?

Yes, Lord, may it be so!

God is trustworthy. But in strange times of confusion and uncertainty, will we surrender our concerns and trust Him? Yes, Lord, may it be so! Click To Tweet

Reflections: Do you believe God is trustworthy? If not, read through Scripture and ask God to help you believe. If so, will you choose to daily surrender your concerns and trust Him? 

By His grace ≈

Julie