We’ve all heard of the expression, “When it rains, it pours,” and I’m also certain we’ve all lived it. Maybe you went from being a little bored to having a ton of responsibility. Or everything was running smoothly, and then challenges were popping up from left to right, leaving you to wonder if you could handle it all.

I remember when this happened to me. Hannah and I were planting a church Tree of Life and invested all of our tithes and offerings into the community without taking a salary; I was in graduate school, and I had some odd and end jobs. We purchased our home, and then our daughter Haven was born. It was a lot to handle, and I had a bizarre emotional collapse. As I worked through the tears, I sought the pastoral counsel of my grandfather. I sat with him and after our talk, I felt much better. I said “Sometimes I just wish it was easier.“ He sat back, crossed his arms, and he then leaned forward and said, “Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.“

Friend, that might sound like tough talk, but as a young man, it was exactly what I needed. Don’t wish it was easier, wish you could step up to it and bear it. There are times we need to dial back and remove things from our lives. Parenting, paying the mortgage, or pastoring cannot be neglected as each of these are weighty responsibilities, but they are also a gift. We find that if we can bear those burdens in their season, we can look back and recognize that because we endured them, we became stronger, better, and more hopeful!