You Are a Gift in Hard Times

I sit across from her in a mostly empty restaurant. We’ve been friends for a while, and I know her story. I know of the pain and upheaval of her childhood and early adult life. I know of the hard places she’s endured in raising her boys, and in keeping her marriage alive.

I am familiar with her. We’ve traveled similar roads, and we nod our heads – getting one another, as we share the brave and broken parts of life.

But today, she surprises me.

Over tostadas and tacos, she shares more than her troubles. She shares the fruit of her heartaches.

Yes, if we dare to look – and receive, we can see how pain births fruitfulness.

She is a woman who knows suffering. She knows what the inside of pain and desperation look like, and now, by God’s tremendous grace and blessing, she lives in a good, solid place.

And she’s eager to give away what good she’s received.

It would be easy, in light of what she’s been through, for her to hoard God’s abundance on her life. To stuff her pockets and line her drawers as a security deposit against all the times her heart’s been broken.

Yet, she treats her blessings as transitory gifts.

One day she holds them in her hands, and the next, she offers them to those in need.

She understands how God puts purpose to our pain, so we can become a comfort and a gift for someone else.

You’ve done it, too.

You’ve cried, and mourned, and shouldered.

You’ve listened, and waited, and prayed, and spoken.

You’ve cooked, and consoled, and gave away your time, money, heart, and home to comfort someone who could not do so for themselves.

You’ve taken your story and remembered the goodness of God. You’ve reached past yourself, emptied your storehouses, and loved your neighbor in subtle and magnificent ways.

Your pain became useful for one crushed in spirit.

And suddenly you’re more than a friend or a loved one…

You are a light-bringer, a goodness-sharer, a gift-bearer.

You, my friend, are a gift in hard times.