Ain't no valley low enough!

1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always.”

Does this verse seem exhausting to anyone else?

This verse is easy to equate to those moments when people tell us to stop being too sensitive or negative. It can feel like the Bible is telling us to gloss over or invalidate our hurts and disappointments.

What if there was a different way to look at this passage?

What if God is saying that celebration can be complex?  

Imagine approaching your failures with the recognition that you are far more valuable and worthy than the situation makes you feel. Let’s bring our hurt to God, and let’s allow Him to show us how valuable and important our emotions are to Him. From this place of belonging, we begin to recognize how each facet of our lives maintains value, regardless of setbacks.

This doesn’t mean the hard times don’t suck; it just means they are significant. They have purpose. Through the difficulty in our lives, can we learn to embrace hardship as a priceless part of our experience? So often, it is the circumstances that we would not choose ourselves that become our most precious gifts.

Feel your pain and your hurt, friends. That’s important. Yet, do not let bitterness overshadow the renewed potency of God’s grace revealed to us in those moments we would most like to avoid.