“I watched him stretch his arms wide
out, out, out into the misty gray air,
reaching up as if to hug the sky who looked so melancholy.
He was grinning from ear to ear,
his eyes sparkling, his chest bellowing,
with laughter, with joy, with hope.
I watched him from behind a foggy window,
trapped in my little world of routine after routine.
I smiled to myself and despite the storm clouds,
my heart was filled with light.
How I wish there were more people like the man who hugged the sky.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a long week.
Yesterday I gave a presentation in class, I have another speech with PowerPoint due next week, it’s midterms (yay tests!) oh and also I’m working 6 days this week. Yeah. Long.
For the past month or so I’ve carried around a mental notebook with ideas for blog posts. While it is my own fault that I haven’t actually written any of those ideas down, for the most part I’ve been so excited about writing that I haven’t needed to.
Until this morning.
I seriously have not given my blog a single thought this past week because my mental energy has just been required elsewhere. I’ve been racing from place to place and when I’m not I’ve just been attempting to eat and sleep like a normal human being (wait, do those exist?). I blocked out this morning as I always do to write, but for about twenty minutes I literally just stared at my screen waiting for inspiration. I scrolled through pinterest, I flipped through my journal, I prayed, I got mad at myself, and then after calming down and drinking some coffee,
I realized something.
I want to be a genuine writer. And to do that, sometimes its not about having a deeply moving topic or a perfectly formatted post.
Sometimes its just about being real.
So I drew inspiration from my experiences. I thought about the past few days and the struggles I’ve had and the things that kept me going.
And what did I find?
A man who hugged the sky.
You see, I didn’t want to go to work on Monday. Me and my boyfriend had hiked 6 miles the day before and since it was so freezing cold on the way down, we ended up running the last 3 miles through steep slippery snow. Don’t get me wrong, it was exhilarating! But my knees were not thanking me for it. Also since I was hiking and not doing homework that day, I had to stay up late that night completing a project. So I entered into Monday with sore knees, heavy eyes, and not enough coffee. I did not want to go to work.
But go to work I did.
The day seemed to drag (as days at work typically do when you don’t want to be there). But then something happened. Something little and seemingly insignificant, and perhaps even silly to some people.
But to me, it was just what I needed.
I was sitting at my desk sorting through source documents for someones tax return, when I saw a man out the window. He had a navy blue raincoat on and he was laughing. There was a little boy with him who had blonde curls peeking out from under his hood. It was a gross, gray day, but they were acting like it was Christmas.
The man lifted his arms up towards the sky and spread them out as wide as he could. I can only imagine what people were thinking when they saw him.
What is that maniac doing? Its freezing out!
That grown adult is acting like he’s 5 years old!
But you know what I thought?
It looks like he’s hugging the sky.
I wanted to join him, but more than that, I wanted to be him. I wanted to to stand under my own gray sky and instead of cursing it or complaining about it, I wanted to hug it. I felt conviction heavy on my heart but I also felt hope.
Life doesn’t have to be so glum, even when the world around us and the weather above us tells us it has to be.
If we have peace in our hearts and joy on our minds, we can face our busy weeks and tired days with excitement and confidence instead of weariness and dissatisfaction.
But joy is a choice. Hope is an action.
We can’t just wake up in the midst of a trying time and expect to have a good attitude. We must purpose in our hearts to glorify the Lord with thanksgiving and rejoicing, even in the midst of hard times.
Whether you are experiencing true suffering, or if you’re just busy and stressed like me, you can still have peace because you are Gods child. You can have hope because you know that difficulty produces endurance and character. You can have joy because this broken world, these broken bodies and our broken hearts will one day be fully mended by the King of Kings.
You can even sit before a computer screen at 6 in the morning with no inspiration and have faith that God will provide the words. Cause He did! (Guys God is so cool)
God has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and welcomed us into the kingdom of light! He’s not going to let us down now. He loves us, he is preparing a place for us, and he promises that when we walk through deep waters, he’ll be right there, walking with us.
“He shall set me high upon a rock and now my head shall be lifted up, above my enemies all around me. Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.”
-Psalm 27:6
You may not have specific enemies as David did, but if you have something in your life that’s dragging you down, discouraging you, or causing you to fear, don’t lose heart. God has not abandoned you. He is still by your side. You don’t need to constantly be on the guard like a solider looking out for his enemy. God won’t let the difficulties in your life overtake you. Even if it feels wrong or stupid or silly, lift your eyes above the difficulty and rejoice in your Savior. Hope in his salvation. Glory in his majesty.
I’m sure a lot of people didn’t understand what the man out my window was doing. I’m sure they thought he was silly and stupid. But I knew by the smile on his face, that he didn’t care about what other people thought. He was just choosing joy.
And you can too.
And I can too.
May we never be so busy, or tired, or hurt, or stressed to thank our God and breathe in and out the blessings of the life he’s given us.
Keep choosing joy, dear friend.
Choose joy like the man who hugged the sky.
