What to Do When Life Feels Like the Death Crawl

Regarding the Storms of Life

I heard someone say once that people can be put into two categories:

Those Currently in a Life Storm
Those with Life Storm Clouds Developing

Which are you today?

Life tends to be cyclical. We go through seasons where things tend to run pretty smoothly, for the most part, and then we experience the times when we better understand the idiom, “When it rains it pours.” If you have not been there yet, rest assured, you most likely will be at some point in life!

[Image credit: YouTube]

The Death Crawl

And sometimes, those hard experiences feel much like this, my favorite scene from the movie, Facing the Giants:

The Death Crawl.

Those are fun times aren’t they? Not at all! In fact, most of us probably would not wish times like that even on our enemies.

Have you ever been through a “death crawl” experience?

I think my first one was when The Chef and I were in the adoption process to bring our son home. We were getting close to the end of that long, unpredictable process and things came to sudden halt. The United States Citizen and Immigration Services Department had made a major change to the paperwork processing procedures that caused travel delays for all families at that point in their adoption processes.

Scariest Words of My Life

Our son’s health had started to take a turn for the worse. He was not making developmental progress anymore and he was very sick. He’d been diagnosed Failure to Thrive. Those are scary words for a parent to hear, but especially when your son is halfway around the world and all you want to do is get him home so that you can love on him and help him move towards better health.

We had no idea how long we would be delayed. What would happen to our son during that time? If his health continued getting worse instead of better … was his life at risk? What if he got pneumonia … again? Every day seemed to creep by. Every morning when I got up, the first thing I did was check my email for word of travel approval.

All I could do at that point was hold onto my faith in God and trust Him with my son.

And that is exactly what I did.

I shared recently in our Facebook community about my pastor’s recent sermon series on stress-free living. He’s been preaching through Psalm 23 and the last sermon was about valley experiences, from where David talks about walking “through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.” He said that the valleys in life prove our faith, whether or not it’s religion or relationship. And there is a big difference.

In Psalm 23 when David talks about the valley, he shifts from talking about God to talking to God … very interesting point I had not noticed in all the times before when I’ve read that passage.

And yet, I know this to be true in my own life … that during times when life is hard, I turn to my Father in heaven for strength.

For guidance.

For peace in the midst of the storm.

And I have always found all of those things.

1 Peter 1:6-8 also speaks to trials “proving faith”:

… now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy …

Through the trial mentioned above and others in my life, my relationship with God has been strengthened.

How? There are several things that I think have helped to achieve this in my life:

1. Listening to a coach. Just like in the video of the death crawl, I looked to God as my “coach”. There have been times when I have also sought guidance from other Believers who are more mature in the Christian faith than I am. There are times when we may need someone like that to “coach” us through the toughest of times. And God has always been faithful to provide those people in my life when I needed them.
2. Focusing my energy on just the next step. Difficult trials can zap us of strength and energy very quickly. As I look back on the most difficult times of my life, I can see how I focused sometimes on just one day at a time, moment by moment, step by step, trusting God to lead me and to help me through that step to the next one. Just like in the video, one move at a time. Not looking at how far was left to go.
3. Constant communication with God is also very important … but especially when we’re in the middle of something that feels like a death crawl. I’ve been reading lately from the Jesus Calling devotional, and it has been amazing at helping me learn and practice more in my life the moment by moment trust in God, learning to practice and be aware of His presence throughout each day, depending on Him for guidance in each decision. We live in such a fast paced culture … we want to rush through everything. But some decisions require us to slow down and listen for His answer of what we should do. Otherwise, we may not make the best decision. He promises wisdom to those who seek and ask for it!
4. Practicing active listening … We communicate to God through prayer, but we have to be careful to remember that communication is two-way and take time to listen to Him. He has things to say to us in the Bible, and sometimes through people He has put in our lives or maybe He wants to whisper something personal and special just to you. If we don’t take time to be still and quiet before Him, we’ll miss those things He has for us. (This was really how Jesus Calling came to be, as explained in the intro of the book!)
5. Renew your mind! Romans 12:2 says: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” We are bombarded every day, all day, with messages from advertisers, family, friends, radio, television, etc. The types of things that we focus our minds on are what will have greatest influence over our lives. When we spend time reading, studying and meditating on the truths of God’s Word, this is what renews our minds and brings about the transformation in our lives spoken of in Romans 12:2. It empowers us to think and act differently, no matter what circumstances are happening around us. Does it mean those hard times will be easy? Not at all, but it has definitely helped me get through them and to find a stronger faith on the other side of the storm.

Another great way to renew the mind is through the type of music you listen to. Find a Christian radio station you enjoy. Many stations have websites with capability for you to listen online, such as WMHK, our local station we love, or K-Love. Once you begin listening to this kind of music, you will see how it helps uplift your spirit and reinforce the truths that you are reading in the Bible. You will find artists that you enjoy more than others and you can load your iPod with the songs that you most love.

Check out our new worship room!

We recently created a worship room if you’d like a place to go for inspiring music or maybe to spend some time worshiping through prayer or other ways. It’s brand new and we will be adding the prayer element soon, as well as much more. But the fact is that times of “focused worship” help us turn our focus off of ourselves and the problems in our lives to the One who has the answers for our problems … or the strength to endure them.

When it’s your turn to “coach”

And then there are times when someone in your life may need you to be their “coach”. The Bible says this about life’s troubles:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

What if your hardship could enable you to help someone else through a difficult time? I’ve experienced this as well, very recently. And it’s a blessing to be able to come alongside someone and be of help.

The whole idea of “it’s more blessed to give than to receive” … it’s true.

A few takeaways from the death crawl clip:

• The value of the blindfold: “I don’t want you giving up at a certain point when you could go further.” What can we learn from this? If we focus on how far or how long this experience goes … we get weary and think we cannot endure. We must focus on just that next step when it gets hardest to keep going.
• “You gotta keep moving. Don’t quit until you’ve got nothing left.” There is a song called While I’m Waiting, recorded by John Waller, that talks about serving God while in a waiting period. When life hits us hard, we need to “keep moving” through the storm. Life does not stop because the storm hit. Most likely, as long as we keep moving, keep living, keep serving, keep praying … we’ll find that little bit of whatever it takes to get us to the next day. One day at a time.
• “Negotiate with your body to find more strength.” There will also most likely be times when we feel like we cannot take one more step. We feel like we have reached that point of not having anything left. But God tells us there is always more grace:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

Also more strength:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

So if we know Him, we can go to Him and ask for more strength whenever we need it. It will be there.

A good friend of mine from high school sent me a letter while I was in college that meant a lot to me. I must have written about something I was going through, and this was his response: “

• “You are the most influential player on this team. If you walk around defeated so will they. Don’t tell me you can’t give more than what I’ve been seeing…. God’s gifted you with the ability of leadership. Don’t waste it.” God has gifted all of us with something. If we let a storm take us out, those gifts are wasted. The Bible tells us:

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 2 Peter 1:3

As Believers, we have all we need to get through life. It might take some time to figure out how to get through that next storm, but He has given His Word, full of promises and guidance. We can go to Him any time, anywhere, in prayer. And He’s given us each other to support and encourage one another.

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If you need some encouragement or prayer right now, please feel free to email us or message us on Facebook. We’d be honored to have the opportunity to pray for you. As referenced above, we often share inspiration in our Facebook community. We also share family resources like these coolest summer camps for kids … join us over there for much more each day.

Your Turn

Comment below if you would like to add anything to this discussion about the hard times in life. We often can learn so much from each other, and we know we do not have all the answers. We humbly share what we have learned and enjoy learning from others as well.