Allow the Lord to hold you in His arms.

As I write this I’m sitting outside on the balcony outside our room enjoying the beautiful view of the lake in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala. These past few days of being here in Guatemala I’ve been reflecting on the image of Christ holding me tightly in His arms. Simply knowing that He’s got this. It’s been a very helpful image to reflect on as I’ve been sick since this past Saturday with various symptoms that I had before arriving here (“Yay!” Welcome to my first week of missions!). But despite the struggle with that I’ve just had this peace and strength I don’t normally have when I’m sick. I would think that being in a different culture, learning a new language and being sick as a dog that I would be extremely stressed and questioning everything I’m currently doing. I’ve been debating this whole week if I would share the fact that I’ve been sick with all of you, but I couldn’t leave it and felt called to share this difficult but beautiful moment in my life. 

This week through the pain, the fatigue and all the symptoms I’ve just kept bringing myself to that image of Christ holding me as I knew without Christ’s strength I’d easily fall into despair. Yes, I would have preferred to not be sick this week, but as crazy as it may seem it’s been beautiful. My prayer life hasn’t looked exactly like it normally does— but I still came to the Lord and reflected on simply being with Him through it and calling upon Him to help me. Which as easy as that sounds, it’s been a journey for me to be able to do that. I’ve always been the type of person to try and keep my struggles and pain to myself and get through it on my own. I’ve had many a night in the past where I was discouraged or in pain and didn’t allow the Lord to hold me through it right away— He was there but I tried to keep it all to myself. And I can’t even begin to describe how hard those times were. Many nights of feeling alone in the darkness until I’d finally admit to myself that I couldn’t do it on my own and I needed to ask Christ to help me with all I had weighing on me.  

While this isn’t the first time, and won’t be the last, that I’ve asked the Lord to help me and give me His strength— this time I’ve been able to know He’s with me in an even deeper way then before. I can look back on this week and know that Christ was giving me the strength and the peace I needed and that He will continue to do so and will never stop. There were some moments where I was tempted to look away from Christ and focus on the struggle, but He reminded me to not push away from His arms and to surrender the fears and struggles at His feet and allow Him to continue to hold me. He’s blessed me with His strength and love, He’s blessed me with wonderful teammates who have lovingly been there in my sickness and encouraging me and praying for me and with me, He's blessed me that we were able to go to Adoration and Mass multiple times this week, He’s blessed me with a understanding Spanish teacher who lightened my homework this week while I recovered and also recommended some medicine (basically their version of DayQuill) that without it would take even longer for me to recover, He’s blessed me with someone I can reach out to to ask how much of the foreign medicine I should even take… 

I could go on and on with how He’s blessed me but I’m sharing all this as I just felt called to write about this and also send out a quick encouragement to anyone who is struggling in anyway: Whatever battle you are facing, whatever struggle is weighing upon you— know that Christ wants to hold you through it all. If you let Him He will wrap you tightly in His arms. Lay down your burdens at His feet and allow Him to take them from you and hold you. He knows the pain you hold, He knows the trials you’ve been through— He knows each and everything that feels overwhelming to you. This week for me was still SUPER hard and exhausting but I know that without a doubt Christ was the one giving me the strength to not give into despair and to get through my suffering in peace. Don’t hold onto the things that are weighing upon you now— no matter what it is. No thing is too small for Him. Nothing is not important to Him. He sees you, He knows you and He wants to comfort you. Allow the Lord to hold you in His arms. 





Beautiful Sunrise in San Pedro! 
Adoration at the Catholic Church here in San Pedro. 


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