Is It Okay To Struggle?

Is it ok to struggle? To have bad days? Days that I barely get through.

I look around. I’ve heard that depression and anxiety are a huge battle for people today, but all I see are smiling faces. Maybe they’re hiding their pain, and they also think they’re the only one. So, is it all just a big pot of lies stewing over a facade of trying to look ok when inside we’re a mess and need a little hope, a little help?

Who’s gonna break the chain and admit imperfection? Or…am I the problem? Should I keep it all in and pretend everything is all right until everything really is ok?

Focus on the positives. List your thankfuls. I know these things help but sometimes I’m so stuck in negative thoughts that I can’t even remember to do them. Respond ‘I’m good’ when asked ‘How are you?’ because it seems that’s what everyone only has time for. :/

Can I have bad days? Can I have a hard time doing things? Can I cry sometimes? Can I fall apart and scream questions at a God who has proven His love to me? David did in the Psalms. Can I?

Or do you need me to hold it all in until…?

This was a hard post to write. I wrote the above part yesterday when I was having a little meltdown and just needed to cry. It’s been a hard post to write, because I’m still trying to decide if it really is ok to struggle.

It’s ok to not be perfect at something and work to get better at it. If God says some form of “Do not be afraid” 365 times in the Bible then it’s ok, in the it’s-natural-for-human-beings way to fear and be afraid sometimes. As long as we don’t stay in that place and we choose to trust God even while it’s scary.

So, maybe it is ok to struggle. Because we have a Father who loves us and will walk us through the valley, the darkness and pain, to the other side.

Jesus wrestled with things. Right before the darkest moment in His life, He cried out to His Father asking if there was another way. Luke 22:44 says that He was in agony – “intense pain of mind or body: anguish, torture”, “the struggle that precedes death”, “a violent struggle or contest”. That same verse says He was sweating and that the drops of sweat were like drops of blood. We don’t know for sure if He was sweating actual blood but there is a real health condition where the blood vessels surrounding sweat glands rupture because of extreme anguish causing blood to enter the sweat, being a logical answer for what could have happened.

What’s painfully beautiful is that though Jesus was in so much torment, He prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” He knew that His Father’s will was best no matter how painful it was. He asked that God would remove the cup (the difficult thing) from Him, but then He rose up from the ground He knelt on and accepted the path the Lord had for Him.

So, yes, it’s ok to struggle, to wrestle through your feelings and cry out to God. But in the end, we need to learn to ask God to help us accept His will for us, to surrender to His plan.

Even if things don’t get better here on Earth, someday we will know no sorrow and shed no tears. We will sing and dance and worship our King for the love He has shown us and for who He is.

"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." - Revelation 21:4