PAPERTHIN HYMN

Life sometimes just has a way of taking you from the highest of mountain tops to the lowest of valleys. Sometimes it happens over a period of time, that allows you to prepare even just a little, for the coming storm. Many times though, it happens in the twinkling of an eye, leaving you completely unprepared and seemingly helpless. The waves slam against you like the hull of a ship at sea. Their heights crashing over, forcing you underneath and gasping for air. You’re slipping deeper and deeper underneath until the certainty of never getting your head above the water again becomes more and more a reality.

This blog post may sound as if I’m in one of these low valleys of life, or slipping underneath the surface of the ocean’s crashing waves, the struggle of this life becoming too overbearing. Is it depression? Is it despair? Is it the loss of all hope?

No.

It’s quite the opposite. It’s about always being prepared for these moments in life that strike so quickly and you think that you are caught unprepared for them. The truth is, you can always be prepared for them.

A few months ago, while browsing a photography blog, I came across an image that was instantly ingrained in my heart, mind and soul. It sums up perfectly the intense trails of this life, what we need to learn from them, the hope we all have to overcome them, and most importantly, how to overcome them. 

Just look at it for a few moments and let it sink in what it means to you.

This one photograph puts so much of life in perspective. It is so powerful. It shows struggle, yet peace. Despair, but hope. Pending death, and redeeming life. 

The message this picture teaches and the subject of it is how you can ALWAYS be prepared for the lowest of lows in life.

You never know what temporal days may bring.
Laugh, love, live free and sing.
When life is in discord,
Praise ye the Lord.