Strength
My grandmother worked almost her entire life. She grew up on a farm, one of thirteen siblings, with a father who was a fairly popular butcher. She used to tell me stories about cuts of meat hanging in the drying room, about crawling on the floor on '“poker nights” and gathering the money adults would drop in their carelessness fueled by flowing spirits.
She used to drive a race car when she was a teen. She met my grandfather, a man with a totally different story, and they’d fallen in love. They eloped, started a family, and many grandchildren later, here I am.
My grandmother was strong.
She cared for everyone who walked through the entrance of the house they shared for all the decades they were married. She made food. She dished out ice cream. She slipped me $5 and said to not tell my grandfather. She showed me how to make homemade applesauce and iced tea.
She was German and Irish, with a deep sense of humor and even deeper sense of contributing to her community. She dressed up for every holiday dinner. She showed us what it meant to be the cornerstone of a family.
We are caught in an era where strength is aesthetics. Strength, they tell us, is how we look, how much we make, how many friends we have. Strong people can stand on their own. Strong people grind all day every day. Strength is success.
Some of the strongest people I know are struggling.
Someone out there needs to hear this.
You are strong in waking up this morning. You are strong in brushing your teeth, getting dressed, going to a job you hate and being productive. You are strong walking through the door to greet your family and play with your kids when the one thing you feel like doing is sitting on couch.
You are strong when every breath is effort. You are strong inhaling in the silence.
Strength is service. Strength is love and caring. Strength is looking after the people that cross your threshold. Strength is giving, stepping into your calling. Strength is having the courage to keep going when the No’s are flying your direction.
Strength is doing it when it doesn’t make sense.
Strength is the life of big moments that seem impossible, that point all outside observers to God. Strength is actions that make an impact resounding a thousand years in the future.
Know that you are strong tonight. You are worth it. You matter. Look up. Look forward. Do it again tomorrow. Put one foot down and follow.
You will make it.