Taking the cover off

Life isn't always sunshine and rainbows.  Sometimes it's just barely making it through the day.  Some days are more like a tornado tearing through your life.  Then there are days when you feel like the rain will never end.  I've learned that we are all books with different covers.  Covers... can hide something you don't want others to see.  Yet, you hope that some one will want to open it up and know what's on the inside.

Covers can hide many things.  There is of course, the beauties that are only skin deep.   There are the athletes that seem so confident but struggle with believing in themselves.  There are smart ones that feel like that will fail at everything and then get too scared to try.  There are ones that are will do anything to make some one love them.  There are also the happy ones that cry when no one is looking. 

No one's life is picture perfect.  There are moments of perfection to savor and look back on.  Moments that you wish would have lasted longer.  Those perfect moments when you look up and thank God for where you are and where He has brought you.  We all love those moments.  Those moments feel like a true connection with God.  The problems of this world fade away and the good stuff -- the blessings -- are what is left.

But, we all have moments where we feel like we are on the bottom of the stairs and we don't know if we have the energy to climb them.  It doesn't matter who we are.  It doesn't matter how rich or famous we are.  It doesn't matter how old or young we are.  There are days where the effort to climb the stairs...to deal with life and it's problems...are just too much.  You have been there.  I have been there.

But, what happens next is the important part.  It's not being at the bottom of the stairs.  The important part is what happens when you are down there.  Do you expect a person to fill that void your feeling and lift you up?  That is a high demand which they are bound to fail.  Or do you look up?  My strength comes not from me, but from Him.  God hears every cry of my heart.  He hears the words that are locked in my heart...the ones that only come out in tears.  I know, in those times, that He hears my heart.  That only He can help me up the stairs that seem so steep.  I know only He can see through what ever cover I'm hiding behind and heal the broken pieces with in me.  That place inside of you that you are trying to fill -- it's God's place.

I lift up my eyes to the hills.  From where does my help come?

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 121: 1-2