I get the privilege of watching people walk through a crisis. I see them at the beginning of the journey: in a state of panic, wondering how they will face this hurdle – be it a pregnancy, an unexpected diagnosis or a miscarriage. I see them a few weeks later, most often a little calmer – with the dazed look gone from their eyes. Then I see them months to years later, with a baby or a little child walking behind them – or a new boyfriend out in the waiting room. I get the privilege of seeing the change unfold in their lives and it’s taught me something immensely valuable personally: I am stronger than I think that I am. We all dread big crisis or change in our lives because we believe we can’t handle it. We think it will just be too painful. We think it will be entirely too much, overwhelming us – making us lose ourselves. But the real truth is that we can handle much more than we think we can, and if we truly believed this we would not live in fear, in our safe little boxes.
We are flexible creatures, I think God did know what he was doing when he created us – He created us to withstand a lot and to be able to thrive even in the most unlikely circumstances. Yes, we have a fragile side, but we also have a deep, profound, inexhaustible source of strength in our Creator.
If we can still our hearts and minds long enough at the onset of a crisis, opening our minds to the fact that there might be a way through this seemingly insurmountable obstacle, God can give us a new heart and a new mind. He can show us that he is not bound by our conflicts, by our rules. The gravity that holds us down, and makes this obstacle in front of us seem so immense and impossible to overcome – that gravity doesn’t even apply to Him. If he can create and sustain an entire universe, He can surely see things that I do not, and can find a way where there seems to be only chaos. If this same Creator is in me and has promised to sustain me, I am much stronger than I can possibly imagine.
Cheryl Seefeldt, Medical Program Director, has been with Hope Clinic for Women for three and a half years. She provides medical care for women prior to, during and after pregnancy through annual exams, STD checking and prenatal care.
