Life is Good. Life is Hard

My two year old daughter Marel came within a minute of dying this morning. I was lying in bed, trying to catch a few extra minutes of sleep, when I heard this horrifying choked off cry right next to me.

Marel had gotten her neck stuck in the cord of the mini-blind and was hanging there, unable to breathe. She had climbed on the bed with her siblings a few minutes earlier, and one of them had opened the blind, to let in light and wake me up.

The next minute or so were the worst moments of my life. Barely awake, I could hardly see as I didn't have my glasses, and I couldn't get the cord loose from her neck. "Get me a knife," I screamed at the two other kids, trying desperately to get here lose.

Thankfully, my brain kicked in and I lifted Marel up, loostening the cord, and I could get her free. She was terrified.

Within two minutes, she was happy as a clam, asking me to make her pancakes.

Life is good. And life is terrifying, all at the same time.

As the Real Live Preacher points out, few Christians are willing to admit this.

Here's how he put it:

I believed then and still believe that many Christians are not honest about their own failings, sins, and disappointments. Like Martha Stewart, they try to sell a sugary, imaginary world of happiness to people who are hurting and looking for real answers.


If you want to read a story about real life struggle from a person of faith, you may want to read The Monster in My Closet by Art Greco. Art is a pastor, and just about the most outgoing and enthusiastic people I know. He also suffered from a crippling depression years ago, a depression so bad at it's onset that Art was unable even to remember where he lived--he just drove through his neighborhood, clicking his garage door opener, and hoping one of the doors would open.

It's definitely not an "I'm a happy Christian" story. But it's real, and it's true.