Guess what?!

No matter who you are, life happens ! You have to roll with it. It gets discouraging at times… and then at times, you couldn’t imagine anything greater than where you are right now. There are two polar opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the experiences and possibilities of this life. Sometimes, we are able to make the best of everything and sometimes, everything seems to get the best of us. I’m not a fan of rap, but I definitely used to be (I actually used to be a fan of literally EVERY genre – except classical and opera LOL)… when 50 Cent first came out back in 2003, Many Men was a pretty popular track on his album and although it’s been quite a while since I heard it, for some reason this verse played in my head earlier:

Sunshine wouldn’t be special, if it wasn’t for rain
Joy wouldn’t feel so good, if it wasn’t for pain
Death gotta be easy, ’cause life is hard
It’ll leave you physically, mentally, and emotionally scarred

I guess there’s no statute of limitation on memories, huh? In any event, I began thinking about the lyrics and realized that this is kinda the same thing that James (Bible) is talking about when he tells us to count it all joy when we experience trials (James 1:2) – because without them, we wouldn’t develop into who we need to be, and we couldn’t know how precious our blessings really are. I know some of you are thinking, "Did she really just relate 50 Cent and James?" Well, actually… yes, somehow I did. Life IS hard and the battles we go through definitely leave marks on our bodies, minds, and spirits… but those marks are all evidence of what caused our growing pains and for that, we can be thankful. We are WHO we are because we’ve been where we’ve been. Life might seem super rough sometimes. The good news? God is still God. And He still loves us and hasn’t forsaken us.