I feel discouraged. I’m a Christian. I go to church. I pray. I tithe. Yet sometimes my spirit is low.
Yes, sometimes I’m discouraged. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what I have to look forward to. I don’t know what’s possible for me or my future. Sometimes I can’t see my future. My vision is blurry. God is blurry.
And this week I’ve been feeling discouraged. I interviewed with my church to go on a mission trip to Colombia. After being told to put April 30th (the date of the first trip meeting) on my calendar about half a dozen times they called to say, “We lowered our capacity…..God bless you.”
Way to mislead a girl. I was SO looking forward to that trip. It was something to look forward to.
This year I decided to be more purposeful about finding a husband. I know the bible says, “He who finds a good wife findeth a good thing,” but I figured all the Christian men in Houston are lost. Maybe I should do the finding. So, I joined 3 different dating sites and it’s been interesting to say the least.
I wonder if I’ll ever get married and have a family. Whenever I ask Christian friends and mentors they always something to the effect that if God put it in your heart He will provide it. Yet, some days I just don’t know. And today is one of those days.
My job was phased out at work. Luckily, I was offered a position on another team. However, I’m bored. I know I should be thankful to have a job, but I’d still like to enjoy it.
Did I mention I’m discouraged? I don’t have an answer to it. I just know in this walk there will be discouraging times. It doesn’t matter who you are. Just because I sit behind a computer and blog about Christianity doesn’t mean I’m always in the highest of spirits or filled with faith.
I do know that when we’re feeling discouraged we have a few options available to us:
- Pray. We can always go to God in prayer. We can be honest about our feelings, our doubts, and our disappointments.
- Do. We can do what’s within our control to do. I may not be able to go to Colombia with my church, but it doesn’t mean I can’t go. My church partners with Conviventia. So I reached out to them directly. We’ll see where that takes me.
- Wait. We can wait it out. Whenever I start a new job there’s always a period of boredom. You’re waiting on things to pick and tasks to be assigned to you.
- Trust. We can trust God for all of our needs and desires. We can trust that He won’t withhold any good thing from us. We can trust He knows what’s best. This one is especially hard for me, because having trust leads to having hope. I hate getting my hopes up. See mission trip experience above.
I just wanted to share with you that if you’re feeling discouraged you’re not alone. We’re thinking of you and praying for you.
~ Charlene
