fortitude.

the waters rise… the light turns to darkness… the earth shakes beneath…

who will calm the waves… who will light my way… who will hold me steady…

Being a human means we are not and never will be immune to difficulty. We will find ourselves face down, at the bottom of the mountain, in complete darkness… and it may feel like there is nowhere lower to fall, nowhere darker to be hidden.

Struggle. Hardship. Suffering. We are susceptible, as humans, to these growing pains.

You may feel like your suffering shouldn’t count… that it isn’t ‘bad enough’ to bother God, or anyone for that matter, with your minor tribulations. I urge you to find rest in His embrace. Run to your Father. He knows.

Growing pains… life is full of trials and suffering. No person has the same story. No person has the same suffering. Yet, every person suffers - even Jesus. He suffered the pains of newborn life, infant life, those painful teenage years… and He suffered death on the cross. For you.

Jesus didn’t just come into the world and die on the cross. He lived.

He lived through the struggles of daily life. He was building His strength, He was being prepared to face the ultimate suffering… to make the ultimate sacrifice.

We are made in the image and likeness of our God. We too, live in the daily struggles of life. We too, build our strength in the struggle to prepare our hearts for ultimate suffering.

How did Christ overcome His everyday struggles… He had a faithful Father. How did Christ endure His ultimate suffering… He didn’t just run to the cross, no. He broke down in prayer… He sought counsel from His faithful Father. He had friends and family, gifts from His faithful Father, to be with Him the entire way. He had the gift of fortitude and you can too.

We will struggle in our daily lives.. we will lose friends, get in fights, be denied jobs, face betrayal. We will suffer trials in our lives.. lose loved ones, face health crisis, fight depression, seek refuge.

Our struggles and our sufferings are our growing pains… our struggles can tear us down until a suffering breaks us, or our struggle can build us stronger and prime us for our suffering. This, however, is not an all or nothing concepts. One struggle isn’t equal to the next and sometimes it’s more difficult to overcome the waters… but, like Jesus we have a faithful Father. We are not meant to live this life alone. We are not created for solitude in struggle and suffering.

Like Jesus, we must run to our faithful Father… we must lean into our friends and family that surround us. God gives us prayer, His Holy Spirit, and our loved ones as gifts. He never meant for our suffering to be a measure of our own strength, all on our own… but it is an open invitation to lean in. Lean into Him when you need Him most… at the bottom of the mountain, face down in complete darkness. Lift your hand, open your eyes, and listen… He is there and waiting for you to run to Him in prayer.

Fortitude is a gift from God. Fortitude is your spiritual bicep. On the hardest days of your life… in the darkest corners of your heart, fortitude gives you the strength to open your heart to God. When you are enduring every ounce of pain you think you can handle, when you have cried every prayer, when you have desperately surrendered everything to His will… you my friend, are growing in your faith… you are using the beautiful, good gift of fortitude and you will never be the same. You are one growing pain away from the perfect masterpiece your Divine Potter is molding you to be. (Jer 18:6)

“Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)

x courtney.