Be A Kite

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - Hebrews 12:1

"In order to get from what was to what will be, you must go through what is." - Anonymous

I was driving to work today and saw a homeless man, pushing a cart across the street in the midst of heavy winds. I watched him, hunched over, shuffling his feet, head down, face stern.  I wondered at the things and circumstances of his life that had pushed him - not unlike the wind - to this place, in the middle of the crosswalk, in the cold. But I did not pity him. Even beneath his age and weakness his fragility betrayed an inner determination to get where he was going, wherever that was, and perhaps this is how we all get through life: by being pushed by circumstances, and pushing back.

I hope that if there are circumstances in your life right now that are holding you down, or beating you up, or breaking your heart, that you remember that you are not alone, either on the journey or in the journey. Many of us are struggling right alongside you and others have been sent to help, there in the crosswalk, holding your hand, getting you from one corner to the next, even when you think you cannot put one foot in front of the other anymore.  

The winds of life can blow so hard in our eyes sometimes that it's hard to see the love all around us. So take heart, say a little prayer and push on. For as Lewis Mumford once said, "A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind."