A Reflection for When Everyone’s Hurting Differently
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
— Ephesians 4:2
There are moments in life that feel like a collision.
Plans change. Expectations unravel.
Something unexpected hits—and everyone involved walks away differently.
It’s like we were all in the same car when everything crashed. But now we’re standing outside the wreckage, each reacting in our own way.
One is angry.
One is numb.
One is holding it all together by a thread.
One is breaking down in quiet ways no one notices.
And me?
I feel like I’m holding a cracked compass—still trying to trust where God is leading, but stumbling with bruised faith and a weary heart.
I said out loud today: “God’s timing and purpose confuses and eludes me at times… but trusting.”
That’s the best I’ve got.
Not clean. Not polished. Just honest.
But even that trust doesn’t mean I’m okay.
It means I’m choosing to stay present.
To feel the ache.
To resist the urge to fix or flee.
To listen instead of explain.
To love without controlling.
This is what bruised faith does—
It keeps showing up.
Not because it understands…
But because hope still guides me.
“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.”
— Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
Even here.
Even now.
P.S.
Within the strain and fatigue of these past days, I also saw something I almost missed: blessing.
Not the loud kind, but the hidden kind—tucked into hospital rooms and early morning coffee runs, long drives and quiet conversations.
If I’d been working, I wouldn’t have been here.
If I had flown back too soon, I would’ve missed the gift of simply being present—of honoring my parents, not just with words, but with time.
And none of that would’ve been possible without my wife, Karen—who released me to be here even though it cost her more back home.
Sometimes the gift is disguised as disruption.
And even now—hope still guides me.
Prayer:
God, I don’t have easy faith today.
I have tired faith. Tender faith.
Bruised, but still leaning on You.
We’re all hurting in different ways, and I confess—
I don’t always know how to love well when the air feels heavy.
But hope still guides me.
Thank You for the quiet gifts I almost missed—
The chance to be present.
The strength to stay.
The people who made space for me to show up with love.
Even in disruption, You were there.
Help me keep trusting Your timing,
Even when it confuses me.
Help me keep showing up,
Even when it costs something.
Help me rest in the grace
That carries me through what I cannot fix.
Make space for healing.
In me. In them. In us.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Breath Prayer
Inhale: My faith is bruised…
Exhale: …but hope still guides me.