It’s hard being not okay – irrespective of the reason – whether it’s sickness, sadness or some other form of suffering.
Because they’ll be those who say you look okay, and assume therefore you are. And those who’ll like to insist it’s okay to not be okay, which it isn’t – not for you at least – not in practice, even if it is in theory.
And then they’ll be those who, no doubt trying to be helpful, will say that you’ve got this – whatever ‘this’ is – and so can make everything okay. Only you haven’t, and you can’t – and are therefore only made to feel worse as a result.
So what’s to be done?
Well perhaps you could try hanging out with the one who once hung on a cross.
The one who is no more okay with how things are than you are; who won’t underestimate the not okay-ness, won’t trivialise it by suggesting you can fix it, and won’t criticise you for not doing more to help yourself.
Because having once experienced a not okay-ness even greater than yours – only to come out the other side – he holds both you and your not okay-ness in hands that are far bigger than yours.
For he can carry what you cannot, and delights in what he will one day deliver – a day when every tear will be wiped away and death will be no more, when everything will be more than okay, because everything will be just perfect.
The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. [Psalm 34:18]
A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. [Isaiah 42:3]
Related blogs:
To read ‘Luther and the war in Ukraine’, click here
To read ‘When our joy will be complete’, click here
To read ‘When Bad Things Happen’, click here
To read ‘Weeping with those who weep’, click here
To read ‘Still weeping with those who weep’, click here
To read ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’, click here
To read ‘on the FALLEN and the FELLED’, click here
To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here
To read ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Good Friday’, click here
To read ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? Rejoicing, though temporarily sorrowful, on Easter Day’, click here.
To read ‘T.S. Eliot, Jesus and the Paradox of the Christian Life’, click here
To read ‘Monsters’, click here
To read ‘On Sleeping like a Baby’, click here
To read “Hope comes from believing the promises of God”, click here
To read ‘Reflections on the death of Leonard Cohen’, click here
Some musings 