Going Through The Motions

I have been here before. I am sure most can relate to this place. The space where you are most certainly not okay yet, nor do you know when you will be okay again, but you have to keep moving. As hard as it is to go through the motions, to say you are "good" when an acquaintance asks how you are doing, to get up, to work despite the deep hurt that invades your heart, to not keep talking about the one thing that pervades your psyche almost all of the time, and to smile so your little boy does not know you are physically well, but your heart is a long ways from healed (this one may apply primarily to my situation, but you get the point), you have to just keep going, because the going through the motions is all part of the process. Here is what gives us hope in the very hard spaces; while you are going through the motions there will be moments, moments that may actually turn to minutes, then hours and eventually days, when the pain does not feel suffocating. There will be times when the smile is real, and one day you will begin to feel true contentment, peace and joy again. While going through the motions, keeping all the balls in the air as you manage your life, there will be moments that you realize you cannot go through the motions at that moment, and then you reach out to a genuine friend who helps you through, and these moments will give you the strength you lack.

Right now, I kind of feel like I am even going through the motions with God. I am praying. I am reading my Bible. I am still feeling confused, hurt, a little angry and disconnected from Him. But, I know that eventually I will not feel this way, and eventually I will look back to see He has been here all along, even when I simply could not feel His presence. So I keep going through the motions.

Here is my humble, not professional, but definitely tried and true as it relates to my personal experiences, advice to anyone hurting...grieve, cry when needed, but then get up and go through the motions, and when you fall, which you will, get back up and start again. In time, you will find joy again. In time, the pain will not sting as bad. In time, you will not feel like you want to cry continually, or that you cannot breathe...in time....in the meantime...(from the famous and very wise words of a cartoon fish) "Just Keep Swimming".