When You Feel Like You've Been Benched

This is a favorite spot of mine.

A place where I can sit and think and watch my babies run and romp and play.

A place where I can thank Him for so many things and offer up a sacrifice of praise.

Bench number 29 is right in the middle of a forest of beauty and feels like home to me.

A place to sit and soak in His presence when it feels like life has benched you- for the 29th time.

I come here to try and gather myself.

I sit and pour my heart out while my babies play on this bridge.

I sit in the sunshine and sometimes say nothing at all. I know He will be waiting for me there.

And other times,  I sit and spill the heartbreak that life can often bring.

Like when you feel that you have given your absolute best-

And life benches you anyway.

And you have to get up, show up and still practice day after day and you still have to wear the jersey in motherhood and as a wife and a daughter and a sister and friend and the like- but you've been benched.

And so many times life can feel like this as an adult.

As if there is some kind of permanent setback tied to your life.

Obstacles that seem insurmountable.

All the while, watching from the sidelines as person after person continues to hit the mark and win- game after game.

Season after season.

While you are scouring for what feels like the missing pages of your playbook.

Sometimes friendships can leave us feeling as though we've been benched.

Motherhood can leave us feeling as though we've been benched. Oh season after season....

And our role as a wife too.

Where finishing school, studying for professional exams, residency, new jobs and new positions within a demanding career path can take center court while we warm the bench.

Sometimes, it can feel like we are overlooked. Forgotten even.

And sometimes.....

Many times.

It can feel like we have been overlooked by Him.

When sickness and life struggles and job loss and a marriage that sometimes hurts and feels like two ships just passing in the night....

Life can feel like God doesn't see. Doesn't know. Doesn't hear our prayers....

But He specializes in showing up in seasons like this.

He hasn't forgotten you.

He sees.  He absolutely knows. And He most definitely hears your prayers.

He is the God who sees you sweet friend.

He is  EL  ROI-  "You are the God who sees me"- Genesis 16:13

He sees how many times you've been overlooked. Abandoned. Rejected. Cast down. Pushed aside.

He knows every, single hurt and sorrow and heartache you and I have.

I want to encourage you today that if this is the season you are in-

A season of setbacks and mistakes and even a few personal fouls.

Or a season of simply warming the bench....

Many great and remarkable things can happen during this season beautiful friend.

We are being developed and molded and pressed but not crushed, (2 Corinthians 4:8) so that when the full court press comes in like a flood- and it will come. 

We will not collapse.

We will faint not. (Gal. 6:9) 

We will persevere and push through and overcome in ways that eye has not seen, nor ear heard.
(1 Corinthians 2:9)

For our good and His glory. (Romans 8:28)

He is going before you and before me- even right now and making the necessary preparations
for a personal best season that is going to bring you into a place of victory you have never known.

He is no respecter of persons. (Acts 10:34)

He is a promise keeper. (Numbers 23:19)

So whether you feel benched as a wife, mother, friend, daughter, sister or person in general....

You serve a God who specializes in doing the impossible and using the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. (1 Corinthians 1:27) 

The last shall be first sweet friend.

I hope you listen to this new song by Mandisa as loud as humanly possible today....

Please.

Break the sound barrier. 

You are an overcomer.......