We aren’t left in the middle of confusion for long. If we’re seeking a way through a storm and taking each little action step we know is ours to take, then the mess becomes less messy. Maybe this happens as we shift the full burden from our shoulders to God’s…from our hearts to the people right outside waiting to be let in.

Life is meant to be shared with the community you call home, and that includes the hard things and the storms.

I can’t stop thinking about my current situation and calling it a “storm”. It’s weighing on me less this week because I opened up. The kind of storms we see in nature can test the strength of trees. Deep roots help a tree to stand. Another factor is whether or not the tree is alone. One isolated tree may get knocked down in a storm. It doesn’t have “friends” to help hold it in place and keep it from falling.

That’s what happens in community. The love and connection among family and friends makes us stronger. We have the support we need when we are real with the people God places in our lives.

We have to be real with God first though. Then the courage comes. The courage for conversations and the boldness to say the “I don’t knows”. And the grace to ask for prayer.

Out of all this, God is making me thankful for the chance to do life together…with the friends who have been around for years, the ones I’m still getting to know, and the ones from my past that I can invite in to my story again.

I’ll do my part. But my story is really His story. I’m slowly watching it unfold day-by-day. Seeing the pieces, the details fall into place one-by-one is when joy follows.