Everyone Has Something – How Are You Different?

Sometimes writing is a bit uncomfortable for me. I feel like I am putting myself out there as someone who has it all figured out and is super holy. I don’t and I’m not. I am not a perfect anything, honestly. Well, maybe a perfect example of how addiction and mental illness can be a part of any family’s story.

I have my days (who am I kidding…I have my weeks) when I feel like I am carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. I snap at my husband and kids because the stress is eating at me. I wish I could just crawl in bed, sleep, and wake up with the world changed.

Life is just so hard sometimes. Yet I recognize that there are so many people who have it far worse. Whenever we compare our lives with others, there are always going to be people who have it far easier and people whose struggles we can’t even begin to imagine. Life is like that. My husband and I seem to constantly find ourselves saying, “Everyone has something.”

Sometimes we see the struggles others are going through, sometimes we don’t. Often, just knowing others have struggles relieves some of the burden. It’s almost like we need a Facebook equivalent where, instead of posting the wonderful things for others to see, we post the challenges and garbage of our lives. Can you imagine? What kind of compassion would that build in us to see that people we are frustrated with for some reason are actually dealing with something horrible that explains their short response or rudeness?

Absolutely would never happen and would never work, anyway – it would just become a competition, wouldn’t it? But I wish for that kind of openness sometimes and the compassion it breeds.

But shouldn’t the church be that way? I don’t mean the congregation, I mean the people. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 says (in a condensed format!):

“That is why we don’t give up. God has given us mercy. We have this ministry…we make the truth plain, presenting ourselves to every person’s conscience before God…We are proclaiming that Christ Jesus is Lord…God has said, “From darkness let the light shine!” He made the light shine in our hearts, too…Why do we have this treasure in clay jars? To show that this superior power comes from God, not from us. We are being squeezed, but we can still move. Sometimes we are in doubt, but we don’t doubt the truth. We are being chased, but God never abandons us. We are knocked down, but never knocked out. We are carrying the deadness of Jesus in our bodies, so that, in our bodies, we may make Jesus’ life obvious, too.”

That chapter continues on, giving hope that our troubles are for a short time in the scheme of things. The power of Christ working in our lives in the midst of the dark storms is what the world needs to see. The world doesn’t need to see perfect Christians who have it all together. They need to see Christians who are struggling with the same struggles they are, but doing it with strength, peace, and hope. Doing it with the support of their fellow Christians.

The pain is real. I don’t ever want to make it sound like you should just have more faith, stop worrying, or any other simple, quick fix you might hear. When I write about developing a stronger faith or understanding God’s grace, or anything else, it is with the understanding that these things all take time and do not take away the pain or the challenge itself. My faith does not change the fact that my son has been caught by addiction. Trusting God more does not make my son’s OCD go away.

What my faith does do is help me to see that God can use my struggles for His good purposes. It gives me hope for a better day in the future. It reminds me that the world I live in is not all there is. It gives me reason to keep trying because there is meaning to my life and meaning to my kids’ lives.

So, when you feel like everyone else has their lives together – I promise you they don’t. When you feel like no one understands – there are definitely people who do. When you feel like you are alone in your struggle against mental illness or addiction in your child – I guarantee you are not. Everybody has something. And God is bigger than it all.

Photo by Olivia Snow on Unsplash