Relationship/Recovery/Restoration

I have come to a conclusion. It's more than likely a temporary conclusion but it's a conclusion nonetheless. I have no control over my life. There's a lot going on that is out of my control. The conclusion? My life is not ever going to be on an even keel. That's the conclusion. Now. What will I do about it? That's a good question. And there are several things that need to be done but I'm going to go about this in a way that I have not gone about things before. Why? It's the "if you do what you have always done you will get what you have always gotten". It's going to take time. That requires some patience. Of which I have little. It's going to take courage. Of which I have some....doesn't feel like a lot but I guess I will find that out along the way. It's going to take perseverance. That's going to be difficult but I'm going to buckle up and hang on. It's going to take a lot of things I don't know about right now. Am I scared? YES! I'm working on not being scared. Fear is debilitating. There's too much to explain here but the main point of this entry is to recommit to my journaling. I'm going to commit to journaling again. For me. For others. It's not to say "look at me". It's to say, "here I am. Here's what I've been through. Here's what I'm going through. Here's how I got through. Here's the lessons I've learned and what I'm learning now." Someone out there may need to know that someone else is going through a similar journey in life. They may be touched. They may learn. They may actually be able to share a part of themselves with me. I'm not writing to just touch/reach others. I'm writing in hopes that I'm touched as well. Selfish? No. I'm saying, "I'm out here in life and I know others are too. Let's help each other. Let's learn about each other and walk through life together. Even if we encounter each other for only a season, let's do that. Because I know that relationships make living life easier and better. It's not things that make our lives incredible. It's the people in our lives that make our lives incredible. Relationships are vital. It's relationships with people that make our lives worth living. Relationships provide us with purpose. We need to focus on meeting people where they are and really get to know them and listen to them about what they need. There is always a time and place for everything. For years, there has been a need to build a movement toward relationships. Not a 5 minute relationship. A more enduring relationship. And it can look different from relationship to relationship. Some relationships are front line relationships. That's where we meet the person head on and develop a lasting relationship. Another time, we might be the supporting relationship. We partner with the front line to support what is needed. We may offer something that is needed in support of the front line relationship to be maintained. Involvement can come in at very different levels. It's not about "fixing". It's not about pity. It's not about empathy. It's about consoling. It's about treating the person as a whole being and not something to be fixed. People are in need of support, not fixing. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that there is not a need for a relief effort. There are times when relief is appropriate. That's not the area I'm targeting. We need to change the way we help others. The focus has been to meet this need or that need. The symptoms are treated but the problem still remains. What if we had a paradigm shift? What if we stepped up and grabbed hold of a hand of someone in need and said, "How can we walk through this together?" We need to start asking ourselves, is this a need for relief or restoration?
I have always been drawn to relationships. I want to help people. I haven't done a lot of that lately. I've been in dire need myself. My life fell apart. All aspects of it. I feel much like a zombie. I've been hit so many times that I feel a lot like the walking dead. And the hits keep coming. In the entries that follow, I will be writing about those things. I don't pretend to be a good writer. I don't pretend to always have clear thoughts about things. Sometimes I can write about things and the words just flow. At other times, my head and my heart just cannot get it together. I don't even know where to begin so I will have to go where my heart leads me. And I will cover a lot of things. Divorce, depression, multiple surgeries, relationships, work stresses, health, co worker stresses, children, parents, friends, God, church, finances as well as a lot of other things.