If you're not okay, that's okay

[ViaCrucis]

This is something that's been on my mind for a while.

I won't get into details, but if you ask me or most any of my cousins, we'd all agree that our family is a family well acquainted with grief. In 1999 I lost an aunt to a drunk driver. In 2000 I lost my mom to breast cancer. In 2008 I lost another aunt to a pulmonary embolism, back in 2019 I lost my dad to a series of medical complications.

These, and many other things, are things I've seen among family, friends, over and over through the years.

I've struggled with depression and severe anxiety for many years, I take medication, and it helps.

Over much of my life I have been asked, "Are you okay?" And it comes from a place of love. And I always answer "Yeah, of course".

Why do I say this? Honestly it's because I don't want to worry anyone. I don't want to be a bother. But also, I have faith, I have hope. I believe in Jesus, and I trust that no matter what the world throws at me is something that, with Christ on my side, I can keep living. That hymn "Because He lives" often plays in my mind.

But here's the thing. I'm really not okay. I don't have things figured out. I don't have this whole adult thing figured out. I don't know what my future holds.

I worry month to month about getting bills paid, knowing that I have absolutely no security about my job.

I look at the world around me, and I see massive instability--instability that we haven't seen in a very, very long time.

Am I afraid? Sometimes the fear does show up--again, I have anxiety, anxiety is something I have to live with every day.

Here's the thing. I'm not alone in all this. I also am very aware that there so many many many more who have it far far far worse than I can imagine. So please, I don't want any of this to come across as a pity party. That's not what this is.

What this is is an open invitation for us, all of us, to recognize that things aren't okay. We aren't okay. We're all of us a people with fears, anxiety, and also a people with hope and faith.

I want to say this: If you're not okay, that it's okay. It's okay to not be okay. We don't need to pretend with one another. All our masks of pretention do nothing but hurt us in the end.

If we are going to commit ourselves to truly loving one another, we need to remember this: We're not okay. But it's going to be okay. Jesus won. Jesus rose from the dead. And in the end, God will make all things right. Let's encourage each other to love one another, and to remind each other that it's okay to not be okay.

In Jesus Christ's name, I love you all.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Michie]

Thank you! Anxiety is tough. Prayers for you.

 

[disciple Clint]

This is something that's been on my mind for a while.

I won't get into details, but if you ask me or most any of my cousins, we'd all agree that our family is a family well acquainted with grief. In 1999 I lost an aunt to a drunk driver. In 2000 I lost my mom to breast cancer. In 2008 I lost another aunt to a pulmonary embolism, back in 2019 I lost my dad to a series of medical complications.

These, and many other things, are things I've seen among family, friends, over and over through the years.

I've struggled with depression and severe anxiety for many years, I take medication, and it helps.

Over much of my life I have been asked, "Are you okay?" And it comes from a place of love. And I always answer "Yeah, of course".

Why do I say this? Honestly it's because I don't want to worry anyone. I don't want to be a bother. But also, I have faith, I have hope. I believe in Jesus, and I trust that no matter what the world throws at me is something that, with Christ on my side, I can keep living. That hymn "Because He lives" often plays in my mind.

But here's the thing. I'm really not okay. I don't have things figured out. I don't have this whole adult thing figured out. I don't know what my future holds.

I worry month to month about getting bills paid, knowing that I have absolutely no security about my job.

I look at the world around me, and I see massive instability--instability that we haven't seen in a very, very long time.

Am I afraid? Sometimes the fear does show up--again, I have anxiety, anxiety is something I have to live with every day.

Here's the thing. I'm not alone in all this. I also am very aware that there so many many many more who have it far far far worse than I can imagine. So please, I don't want any of this to come across as a pity party. That's not what this is.

What this is is an open invitation for us, all of us, to recognize that things aren't okay. We aren't okay. We're all of us a people with fears, anxiety, and also a people with hope and faith.

I want to say this: If you're not okay, that it's okay. It's okay to not be okay. We don't need to pretend with one another. All our masks of pretention do nothing but hurt us in the end.

If we are going to commit ourselves to truly loving one another, we need to remember this: We're not okay. But it's going to be okay. Jesus won. Jesus rose from the dead. And in the end, God will make all things right. Let's encourage each other to love one another, and to remind each other that it's okay to not be okay.

In Jesus Christ's name, I love you all.

-CryptoLutheran

I have read and appreciated many of your posts, your knowledge of Theology is excellent and you are willing to invest a substantial amount of time in composing explanations for the questions that people have. You are a valued member of this forum. I can understand how you feel, I lost a person very close to me two months ago, and of course everyone wants to console you and they ask how you are and you cannot tell them how you truly feel, so you tell them what they want to hear, I understand and I wish the best for you.

 

[Kettriken]

Why do I say this? Honestly it's because I don't want to worry anyone. I don't want to be a bother. But also, I have faith, I have hope. I believe in Jesus, and I trust that no matter what the world throws at me is something that, with Christ on my side, I can keep living. That hymn "Because He lives" often plays in my mind.

This is so important. Saying you're ok is not just a dishonest temptation to brush past difficulty or even a desire to not burden people. There is a real faith and hope behind statements like yours. Because he lives, we can face tomorrow.

Some days we feel that, other times we rest heavy on faith or support from the body of Christ to see us through. God knows how hard we work to survive this cruel world and there is no shame, in fact there is glory in letting others know how hard we rely on that divine Grace. But some days we just don't have it in us to even talk about it. Those days it is ok to just say we're ok. Because we know it will be ok, even if we don't feel it.

As Julian of Norwich says, "All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
The full quote is this,
“In my folly, before this time I often wondered why, by the great foreseeing wisdom of God, the onset of sin was not prevented: for then, I thought, all should have been well. This impulse [of thought] was much to be avoided, but nevertheless I mourned and sorrowed because of it, without reason and discretion.

“But Jesus, who in this vision informed me of all that is needed by me, answered with these words and said: ‘It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.'

“These words were said most tenderly, showing no manner of blame to me nor to any who shall be saved.”

 

[Dave G.]

But Christ is faithful to carry you through it all. I ask for strength and calm and peace by way of the Holy Spirit and He is faithful to deliver it. When my wife of 47 years passed in 2020 I prayed it nightly around 2am, that magical time we get attacked and He was faithful to put me back to sleep. I think 2021 was not an easy year for anyone and concerning that, we know the season we are in that is not destined to get better, everything is unsettled and unsettling but to live in Christ is gain, to die in Christ is gain. And He covers us, there is amazing peace under His wings, that covering, but we must believe it's really there or we are like eagle chicks that strayed out from under its mothers wing in a storm.

God bless and keep you may His face shine upon you. Our comfort is not found in the world but from above.

 

[Petros2015]

In Jesus Christ's name, I love you all.

You are one of my favorite people here Crypto; thanks for the personal post, I needed to hear all of that.