Human connection and how it happens is a great mystery. It doesn’t matter where you’re grinding it out you’ll have some people you like and some not so much. Funny isn’t it? Even the families we go to sleep with and wake up with annoy us and we annoy them. We make each other happy too. God’s presence isn’t here for us to hit the bullseye every time. We aren’t. Like I’ve shared before, we can get in the batter’s box, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to hit a home-run. There are home-runs in the grind, but like any good major leaguer no one’s batting a thousand.

We have to be patient with the process. We have to merciful to ourselves. If you need to sit on the couch and stare into space do that. Lies are one of the biggest weapons used against us, and if we can look a lie in the face and tell it we aren’t going to give into it then we’ve crossed a wide threshold. In the past I needed professional counseling to do that. You might need that now. Please get on the phone and do that right now. Schedule that ASAP. You are not weak by admitting you need help. Life is hard as hell, and the strong ones get help. Every strong biblical character I admire had help. Every fictional character I love reading about needs help. Every movie, television and real life person who has made any contribution to society did not do it alone. We were made for community. That’s why I love this blog thing. Before blogs I’d long-hand (handwrite) in a journal (diary), but now it’s not just for me, but for millions if they so choose. The most personal is the most universal, and my own mom continues to parent me as she is a regular reader of Beyond Sad.

I’ve met and continue to meet amazing people on this global village who are encouraged and encourage me through Beyond Sad.

As an evangelical Christian in the buckle of the Bible Belt I frequently meditate on Scripture. Today I was meditating on the one that says, “In humility consider others better than yourselves.” I’m not sure off the top of my head where that is found in the New Testament, but as we pause to reflect on that don’t you think we are doing that as we read each other’s writing? I think so.

I know some of you that visit here may not believe in Jesus. You might believe he was a great teacher in the first century, but I take that believe much further. I believe He is a great teacher who was raised from the dead, and His words in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament are just as relevant today as they were in the first century. I strive not to be a “Bible thumper” because I don’t think that’s what Jesus wants me to do, but I also don’t apologize for the life giving truth His message brings to my family and me.

I’ve also been meditating on another verse that I think is found in 2 Timothy. It says, “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity and of fear, but a Spirit of power, love and self-control.” My mom had us memorize that years ago because I even earned a masters in religion. His Word is mighty good people. Not because we can recite it from memory, but because it is living and active. Our visual and auditory world can sometimes drown the Word of God out in our lives, and it is quiet times like now when it can come swimming back into thought.

As someone who battles depression on a daily basis fear and anxiety can literally make an entire day or week unproductive. I hate when that happens. I am fighting it, but I am not fighting it alone as you know. I seriously thought about lying down on the couch to read Harry Potter, but I chose to type this. I’m glad I did because writing is oh so therapeutic. Reading Harry Potter is too, but I needed to write.

My daughter and her friend are swimming at a neighbor’s house right now, and I have a networking dinner to attend tonight. When I came in from dropping them off I was overcome with sadness as I frequently am when alone, but the Spirit intervened with hope. I gave serious consideration to skipping the networking event, but then I thought about Jon Acuff’s “noble excuses” he writes about in Finish. I was going to skip it to spend time with my family. That’s good and important, but I need to be at the networking meeting. I’m not neglecting my family by going to that.

Lies and fear will sabotage you like no tomorrow.

Strive not to let them. I’d tell you to read the Bible, pray and go to church, but I’m not going to because lies and fear still show up when you do all three. I think they’re louder when you engage in all three of those. Satan goes to church, and we know he knows the Bible. My advice is to seek God’s presence. That’s different for all of us. He will be found, but He won’t force Himself on you. You must seek Him. All that is good is from Him, so He’s not hard to find. Be gentle with yourself, but hold yourself accountable. If you need to keep the tv off do it. If you need to just sit and stair out the window do it. If you need to leave the apartment right now and go to Starbucks do it. If you need to stop reading this and write you’re own post do it.

I close with one of my favorite NT passages.

In Him we live and move and have our being.