“Can this possibly get any worse?!”
Yes, actually, it can. No living person is free from life’s unquestionable challenges, trials, hurts, devastations, frustrations, tears or seeming impossibilities. Sometimes life falls down so hard upon us that we feel like we can barely breathe under its weight. It’s so easy to abandon hope and cry out, “Why me? Can this possibly get any worse?!”
There is a way to breathe; a combination of otherwise unrelated parts that, when assembled, will help lift the crushing hopelessness of that weight. Combine gratitude with celebration and perspective. Gratitude for the good things you have or have had—no matter how small or seemingly insignificant—and celebration of all those gifts. Make a list if you have to. Write it down.
The most important part, however, is perspective. Things could indeed always be worse.
While we often compare our lives and situations to those of whom we perceive to have it better than us, doing so generally leads to self-pity, which is nothing short of poison for the soul. Instead, compare your life to those who are less fortunate, doing so with humility and not smugness. Do you have a home? Were you able to eat yesterday? Do you have clean water to drink or to bathe in? Do you sleep in safety without fear for your life? Can you breathe on your own? Do you have a mind to reason, a voice, people who love you, or a faith in that which is greater than yourself? Think on these things. Make a list if you have to. Write it down.
Life brings us legitimate trials and tribulations, and life can hurt, but perspective helps soothe our wounds and keeps us from being completely crushed. Nothing breaks that “woe-is-me” grip like taking an inventory of what good you have and imagining just how much worse things could possibly be. And in that, you’ll have the strength you need to navigate life’s most ominous storms.
“Whatsoever things are TRUE, whatsoever things are HONORABLE, whatsoever things are JUST, whatsoever things are PURE, whatsoever things are LOVELY, whatsoever things are of GOOD REPORT; if there be any VIRTUE, and if there be any PRAISE, THINK ON THESE THINGS.” — Philippians 4:8
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