Growing Pains

Back in May, I posted that I was experiencing the best and the worst of times all at once.

That still hasn’t changed.

So many beautiful things are happening in my life. I’m traveling. I’m leading. I’m laughing. I’m smiling. I’m watching prayers be answered and doors open that only God could have opened.

And at the same time…

I am struggling. I am dying. I am sacrificing. I am suffering.

There are parts of me being stretched, pruned, and refined in ways I never expected. Every day I have to fight not to let the loud screams of the latter overshadow the greater work God is doing in my life.

That’s the tension of transition.

The beauty and the breaking. The blessing and the burden. The joy and the grief.

And yet, God is sustaining me in every aspect of my life.

He is keeping me when I feel weak. He is carrying me when I feel tired. He is providing for me when I feel uncertain.

And just because I don’t like how it looks right now doesn’t make it any less good.

Because God is still good. His plans are still good. And His hand is still on my life.

Some seasons won’t make sense while you’re in them. Some seasons will ask more of you than you thought you had to give. But if God is in it, there is purpose in it.

So I keep saying yes. I keep showing up. I keep trusting.

Because I know the pruning is producing something. And what God is building in me is greater than what I’m feeling around me.

This is what my transition looks like, what about yours?

Enduring,

Erika Michelle