There are so many chipped and broken hearts around me.

Some of my dearest friends are so strong. They remind me of the song, “If you’re going through hell, keep on going.” Because that’s what they do. I think that’s what we have to do…

In highschool, my friend and I had nicknames for each other. I don’t remember which was which, but one of us was a helpless case and the other a hopeless cause. In reality, though, we were neither helpless nor hopeless.

When I look back at all of my darkest days: being left behind at age twelve, sitting on a suitcase at boarding school; dreaming that a building had collapsed on me only to wake again to the physical and emotional pain of a bilateral mastectomy; collapsing into the arms of a co-worker after receiving a text of a way-too-soon death…

When I look back on each of those suffocating, dark, horrid moments, I can see the hand of God holding my heart and helping me keep on walking. So, I have to trust that if I look forward, I will still see it.

So, to my dear friends going through hell right now, keep on going.

If you can, keep on trusting, but if you can’t at least just keep on going. I’m trusting for you right now.

I pray that God will swamp your heart with peace tonight. That He will overwhelm your minds with His blessed assurance and overflow your hearts and lives with love. That He will bring a bright spot of laughter into your dim gray days.

I pray that He’ll give you a new glimpse of the End Game, the Big Prize, the Reason we keep marching forward through the storm.

Because that’s what this is. It’s just a storm. A huge, category 5, life-draining storm. But this, too, will pass.

Jesus endured dark days, too.

And it’s because of those dark days that he can be our strength when we are weak, our support when we fall down, our glue when we fear we may fall to pieces, and our hope that this life will somehow end Good.

He understands. He walks with us.

Know you’re not alone, and just keep placing one foot in front of the other.