Life is good.
Good... what does this mean? When someone says, "how are you?" we always tend to reply with "good." But what is good?
Good is the "go-to." It's a simple word that can be used to answer complicated questions. For example:
Q: Who is God?
A: God is good.
Q: How was your day?
A: My day was good.
Q: How are you?
A: I'm doing good.
Q: Why do you like this song so much?
A: Because it's good.
or the text conversation I'm sure everyone is familiar with:
Person 1: hey
Person 2: hey
Person 1: how r u
Person 2: good u
Person 1: good
Read at 5:37pm
Good. Weird, I just typed that and stared at it for a while and now it looks like the weirdest word ever. Good is a weird word, but not just because of the way it sounds after you say it 20 times. Good is weird because we can use it to replace a bunch of words that we don't feel like saying, and it's accepted. It's normal. It's just what we as humans do.
A lot of the time I find myself scrolling through someone's Instagram or Facebook and thinking to myself, "wow, her life looks so good." From my perspective, it seems as if she has zero problems and zero worries. Just a cute boyfriend, a cute dog, a cute tattoo, a cute family, and a Starbucks drink. Perfection.
But deep down, everything is NOT as "good" as she makes it out to be.
That girl is struggling with keeping up her grades. She also works seven days a week to pay for college. Her parents are in the middle of a divorce. Her boyfriend only wants her for sex.
But all the while, she puts on her make-up, dresses herself in her cute clothes, throws a smile on her face, and when someone asks her "how are you?" she replies with "good."
It's not okay to be good when things are not okay.
For me, the past few days have been extremely rough. I'm sure everyone has days, weeks, or maybe even months like this. I realized that I was having a difficult time when a friend just casually asked me "how are you?" and I replied with "good." because it was something I was so used to saying. But immediately after I said the weird four letter word, I thought to myself, "Kenzie, you are not good. Right now you are sad. Be sad."
I felt like crying. When you feel like crying, cry your eyes out. Don't fake it. Feel your feelings, in the realest way possible. Don't try to ignore or cover up something that's been bothering you.
1. Confront yourself. Ask yourself, "how are you?" and respond in the most honest, and the realest way possible. Write it down if it helps.
2. Confront people. If someone caused you to feel something, anything, let them know... in whatever way you feel most comfortable. It's difficult to be vulnerable and open because it exposes the deepest parts of our hearts, but it's what we need to do.
3. Confront God. Pray. Ask Him questions like, "why?" and "how?" While asking these questions, be sure to humble yourself before Him. God is not a wimpy God, and we little specks of dust in this giant universe need to realize how big He is when we come to talk to Him.
Your feelings are always valid.
I love the movie Inside Out. *SPOILER ALERT* It's about how someone can be joyful and sad at the same time. But how in the world does this happen? Here's how:
"Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:2-5
Boom. The Lord is the only one who can bring us joy in our sadness. But what does this kind of joy look like? Will I be dancing around my house to "Dude Looks Like A Lady" right after I find out I failed my physics test? NO! This joy is just simply knowing that God has a purpose for whatever you may be going through. If you trust in Him, He will use the trials you face to shape you and mold you into the strong and wise person He has created you to be.
Like I said, these past few days have been extremely rough for me. Am I still a little sad? Yeah. But I can rejoice knowing that the Lord is... the Lord! He knows what He's doing, all the time. Even when I don't see the purpose, He does. And that's all that matters.
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
