I was not looking forward to yesterday’s work on our eternal basement remodel project. Fighting through a spaghetti of wires, removing the dirty old, scratchy fiberglass insulation at the top of the wall and replacing it with new, nicer foam board left me looking for more pleasant things to do on that Saturday. Things like weeding the flowers, doing the dishes, trimming my nails…. anything else, looked good. However, I knew I had to take care of this before I could move on.

Recently, I was told of a young mother and three kids ages 4 and under who decided they needed to visit Gramma and Grampa. So they hopped in the car, buckled in and equipped with toys, snacks and other necessary supplies, hit the road – a 14 hour road trip. Yikes!

 As they rode along and as the children’s entertainment lost it’s luster, mom would say to them “I know this is hard…, but we can do hard things.” That became her mantra as they drove through the day. “We can do hard things.”

In the last year or so I’ve come across folks who find themselves in the middle of ‘hard things.’ Challenging, difficult events that try their patience and test their faith – aging parents, serious heath issues, problems at work, problems at home, relationship issues, taxing work loads, students who are a pain, difficult decisions, death, grief, crises of faith – have them questioning God… How long? What am I doing here? How do I pray? or Where are you?

Hard things abound in life.  Yet we have the assurance that we belong to Jesus, body and soul. We can do all things through Jesus who strengthens us. In Christ we can do hard things.

So, I’m here to report that in comparison, my little basement problem was trivial.  The traveling mom and kids arrived safely. Gramma and Grampa, no doubt, greeting them with smiles and hugs.  And maybe this is how it will be when we go to be with Jesus. Him greeting us smiling, arms open, and reminding us that …. together we did hard things.