Grit

This has been the happiest and most relaxing camping trip yet for us.

That kind of grit takes a whole lot of puposeful training and practice.

And if you knew the last few weeks we have had over here, you would know that is a crazy statement.

I am starting to realize the best things in life are only enjoyed by those with the grit to get there….

The best lives are not those free of challenge or adversity or troubles.

Good, rich life isn’t achieved by removing all the hard stuff.

Rich abundant life somehow learns the thriving right smack dab in the middle of it.

I was recently accused of being heartless for thriving.

Its hard to understand how I could be happy and hurting at the same time so it is assumed I must not be hurting at all.

But I have worked long and hard to be able to hold both at once.

Camping is that for me.

Its the hard that is still good – not diminished in the cold showers and the 1000th walk to the bath house to pee or huddling together to stay warm in the cold of the night.

Wierdly, things get flipped on their head til all those hard parts ARE the good.

I am learning how to smile for real, even when evil punches you in the gut and takes your breath away and steals the things that matter most.

I’m so insanely proud that we showed up this weekend and thrived, in the midst of it all.

God is still good.

Even now.

Even in this.

And He WILL complete the work He has started in me.

He will bring beauty, no matter what may get stripped away or stollen.

He will send my roots down deep to ever present streams of water til the superficial things no longer cause me to waver…

And that doesn’t happen over night.