Being a student on Zoom is an entirely different experience. Of course, we are no longer in physical spaces which makes it different, but something about sending a private message to my friend in a chat is more satisfying than passing a note or mouthing a sentence in the hopes that my friend across the room knows what I’m saying. But this isn’t about Zoom or school, or the abundant blessing that it is to have friends and family to lean on, struggle through life with, and confide in. So often in class, I have heard heartbreaking things, things that I could not relate to or imagine happening in my own life. And in those moments where I could do nothing but pray for the well-being of whoever was speaking, I sent them a message of faith and of hope, reminding them that God was with them, but also that they would be okay, that through time, through faith, and through much work, things and, more specifically, life would get better and that is what this is about. Yes, to have support, kind words, and encouragement from others is uplifting and comforting, but there are times and will be times where the comfort, the kind words, and the encouragement has to come from within, where the only people rooting us on and encouraging us is us.

The funny thing about life and about us, as humans, really, is that we can help others, we can advise, support, and encourage them, but we grapple with being as helpful and considerate to ourselves. As someone who is only recently learning to extend the same grace and love to myself as I extend to others, I understand that the former is far easier than the latter, but at some point, for your own sanity, you will need to uplift and encourage yourself. As great and essential as it is to have a support system, I would be lying if I said there were not times that I was in a funk that I could not get myself out of. In fact, there were several times amidst this pandemic where between losing uncles and George Floyd and just thinking about my life and my mistakes, that I was just sad and defeated – feeling as though there was nothing I could control, feeling as though I was but an irrelevant speck in the big picture and like I could literally be on this Earth no more. My coping mechanism for dealing with all of that uncertainty and anxiety and discomfort was to deal with none of it at all, but instead, to just lie in bed all day, with no interest or ability to do anything but fret, sleep and repeat. My mother would come by, my father, my sisters, and my brother, but there was nothing anyone could say or do to encourage me or get me out of bed. It wasn’t that I wanted to be helpless and it wasn’t that they weren’t being supportive, but something in me had not yet clicked and something in me refused to do anything but lie and focus on all the horrible things that were happening in the world. But that clearly wasn’t the answer. It took me days to get out of the bed, but I can take no credit for it. I encouraged myself, sure, but I encouraged myself in the Lord because there was no other way I would’ve gotten out of the bed. It is not enough to have a can-do attitude and faith in yourself, but faith in the Spirit of God that abides in you and a clear understanding there is no prevailing without Him.

Life was hard before the pandemic and there is plenty to lament and be disappointed about, but  there is so much more to be grateful to God for – more than we realize, and it is in those moments when our backs are against many a wall, that we must overwhelm ourselves with truth and encouragement and with the fact that yes, we are going through a lot and we have lost a lot, but, first off, we are still standing- not knocked down by life itself just yet, and secondly, that we shall overcome, that by the grace of God there is nothing we can’t handle and that is the key. Amidst conflict and adversity, we forget about the constant friend that God is, and those are the precise moments that we ought to remember that. We forget that His spirit abides within us, so we are never alone, but surrounded, never weak, but strong and never forgotten, but remembered, loved and covered. By encouraging ourselves in the Lord, we remind our flesh, which so easily forgets and falters, that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Encouraging yourself means never counting yourself out or even allowing yourself to conceive of defeat. It is understanding that your present trials and tribulations are very real and may even feel eternal but that you and your God are intrinsically and wholeheartedly prepared for them and bigger than them. That you and God will endure and live to see the trial behind you as the strength and clarity and peace you garnered from it remain.

There are so many opposing forces working against us – to thwart us, to set us back, to prevent us from recognizing our purpose and self-worth, but we should never be our own roadblock. Remember, in trying times and, more specifically, times like these that you have a Savior and an anchor, and he abides in you, which makes you stronger than whatever force stands against you. If that does not encourage you, does not comfort you, does not lift your spirits and change your life and perspective on anything, then I don’t know what will.