Fine line between trite and truth

This morning in my journal I wrote:

“When facing a big challenge that seems impossible, take heart that God is giving you a chance to explore just how big, powerful, and sufficient his love can be.”

Or something like that.

I wrote it because I needed to read something like that myself today.

It rang like a bell. It sounded like truth.

Yes, Lord, I’m ready. Let’s go get it.

As I started to copy the phrase from my pen-on-paper journal to this online journal, I hesitated.

How would the same phrase sound to someone who’s child has cancer?

To someone who’s addiction to alcohol is about to take her life after spending her life’s savings and years in every conceivable treatment to no avail? Or to those family members who participate in her slow death?

To someone who lost a family member or friend–or the last trace of feeling safe in their hometown–in the Brussels bombings that happened just this morning?

Maybe we need to practice loving ourselves by the things we say to ourselves in private.

And maybe loving our neighbors is more about practicing being with them rather than saying something to them.

And that’s awfully scary thing to do (which is why we often opt for saying something instead).

So it’s a good thing that “when facing a big challenge that seems impossible, take heart that God is giving you a chance to explore just how big, powerful, and sufficient his love can be.”

Onward and upward.