When Life Smacks You Down
Sometimes events, situations and trauma come into your life with brute force. There is no warning. You get smacked down so hard that you can't breathe and your brain goes numb. It’s impossible to form any rationale thoughts or process what is happening in those moments. Words get stuck in the back of your throat and you simply freeze up as your brain is trying to recover from the blow.
One morning not long ago I sat on my couch basking in the quiet. I was reading my Bible, sipping hot coffee and trying to process some blows that I had taken recently. I was completely jolted by the sound of something smashing into my sliding glass door! For a second I sat completely stunned, not knowing what had just happened. I heard the loud noise and saw a flash in the corner of my eye. I knew something large had hit the glass but I wasn't sure what it was. Finally, I got up to check it out. I expected to see a dead bird laying on the deck outside the door. Instead, there sat a big hawk! It was on it's feet, wings spread apart and beak open. It sat there just outside the glass looking at me stunned, disorientated and so alone. It had no idea what just happened or what to do next.
Honestly, it was an exact picture of how I felt that morning. Life had just smacked me down pretty hard. Events occurred that demanded my total attention and harsh words slung in my direction had completely rattled me. In the moments of watching this hawk, it did not even register to me what a display this was of how I felt.
The poor bird sat there for almost a half hour before it started to come out of it. I gently tapped the window to see how it would respond. It moved just a little, like it was waking from a deep slumber. I tapped again. It tucked in it's wings, jumped on it's feet and flew up to the canopy on our deck. It needed a bit more time to recover.
There it sat until it was ready to flap his wings and re-enter life in the woods behind our house.
Can you relate? Has life ever smacked you so hard that you can't move and you can't think straight? You sit stunned without motion and without strength as you recover from the blow. What do you do? How do you recover?
The only way I know how to get flight back in my wings, so to speak, is to run to what the Bible calls, the secret place.
For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me." ~Psalm 27:5
We are invited in and we are welcomed to take shelter from the storms of life. However, we must come with an honest and transparent heart. A soft heart that He can tenderly protect and one that He can mold and shape as we look to Him to carry us through the raging storm, speak wisdom to our heart, and give us direction to move forward. There is no safer place. There is no other who can comfort like He does. There are no other words, but His, that go to the depths of our pain and bring the healing we need.
Comments