Good morning…
The trouble with troubles is that they glob together. One new hurt connects to a past hurt. One fresh insult joins forces with old ones. One fear adds into the growing sum of fears. Before we are fully aware, within us exists a hardened conglomerate of anger, pain, and anxiety.
As a noun, “conglomerate” means a number of different things grouped together to form a whole while remaining distinct entities. A mixture. A composite. A combination. As a verb, to “conglomerate” means to gather together in a compact mass. To mingle. To merge. To fuse. The trouble with troubles is that they mingle together, merging and fusing into a hard mass inside. New experiences stick onto the existing composite and our ball of rage mixed with pain mixed with fear grows larger and larger with each added assault.
The saving grace of a conglomerate is that, if we can take our focus off of the whole hurting mass, we can identify the distinct entities within our trouble. We can take into prayer each injury we recall, each insult causing pain, each fear living in our heart. Prayer helps us name. Prayer helps us heal. Prayer helps us accept the people and the situations in our lives as they are, not as they were, not as we wish they would be. Prayer helps us accept the people and the situations in our lives as they are. As we end the old year and start the new, why not give ourselves the gift of deep prayer, asking God to begin to heal the hard mass of hurt troubling our heart?
Jesus told each one personally: “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.] John 16:33 (AMP),
Sue
