Pressing Down Hard

"Just exhale (right now)...and smile.  Sometimes smiling is an act of defiance against what's pressing down hard.
Sometimes smiling is an act of sheer bravery.
Sometimes smiling in brokenness is how we remember:

We are the Resurrection People and there is more happening than what seems and we practice our faith.  Practice Smiling.  Practice Joy.  Practice counting gifts.

He's got us today.  No situation is more hopeless than our Savior is graceful."

This came across my feed just as I sat down at my computer to catch my breath and try to get perspective.  

How timely.

Many situations are "pressing down hard" right now.  At this moment, we have movers loading up our possessions to move to California.

Only thing is - we don't even know if we have a house to go to when we get there. We were supposed to know by now.    Time was ticking.  Still no word.  We had to decide - do we go forward in faith?  

Do we just give up and stay and wait? We decided to press on.  

We may be renting another storage unit to put our belongings in, and then live...

somewhere else?  Find a rental? What an adventure.

By itself, this might be exciting, but other things are also "pressing down hard" right now.  At this same moment as the move, my dad is in a hospital having tests done on his heart.  Texts going around in the family group chat.  How is dad?  How is mom holding up?  So much to "worry" about.

Practice smiling.  Practice joy.  Count gifts.

We are supposed to be going to a memorial service next month for my nephew.  Grief entered our world deeply.  We cannot even book our flights because we don't know where we will be when that time comes.  Pile on more stress...

So, we carry on - we hope for our home deal to go through, we hope for good news about my Dad's heart, we hope that on Monday we know where we will be living.  But if none of these things come to pass, and amidst a dozen other long weighing situations and hoped for answers and waiting for news, we will carry on and know that God has a plan for us.  A place for us.  And meanwhile, we will keep on counting gifts.  And practice smiling.