Strong

Life is hard. You get knocked down. Beaten up. Bruised. Broken.

It is life.

And life is hard.

Life has taken its toll on me emotionally lately. When it rains it pours I guess.

Because life is hard.

My world has been shaken. The rug has been pulled out from under me. Every time I start to stand, I am immediately knocked down.

Life is hard.

I used to think that I had to be strong. That if I had weakness, I wasn't relying on God. Be strong, Chiarra.

But life is hard.

And so over time I learned a coping mechanism. Hiding.

Cause life is hard and I am not always strong.

Whenever I was crumbling inside myself, I started hiding.

I am great at it.

Masking the weakness that I have and pretending to be strong.

Eventually I forgot how to be weak.

And now I am scared of what people will think if I am not strong. I am always strong for everyone else.

What will happen if I am not strong?

The thought scares me.

But life is hard. And it is impossible to be strong.

But, won't God be upset if I am not strong? If I am weak, will He think that I am not trusting Him? Is weakness a sin?

The Message Version says it like this (emphasis mine):

"Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.

My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks.

I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

I love the way it says this. "I was glad to let it happen. I just let Christ take over. And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."

I do not have to be strong. And I am actually more strong in my weakness.

This is beautiful. Because life is hard.

Sometimes I don't have any strength left. I just leave it up to God, I just have to let Christ take over.

When I am weak, He can become strong.

Life is hard. But we don't have to face it alone.

God is our umbrella, taking the rain so we don't get wet.

#ProjectYouAreStrong