This world of ours is so big and so small all at the same time.

Another mother paces the floors at 2:00 am with her wailing baby, exactly as I do in my living room. She cooks for her family, dresses her kids, wipes up crumbs, mops floors, and does dishes. She loves her friends and family, she goes to the mailbox and the grocery store, and sings on the way. Our lives and our hearts aren’t all that different, only separated by geography.

But there are other things that aren’t even a blip on my radar. Things that give me a pit in the depth of my stomach and haunt my dreams. Things that cause tears to fall from my chin onto my baby’s hair as I smooth it while she sleeps. Big huge horrific acts happening in pockets of the world, and all I can do is read about them on Facebook and pray. Other things are happening in my own corner of the world on perhaps a smaller scale, yet they’re life-altering as well — like cruel cancer to wonderful people. Job loss. Miscarriage. Divorce. Poverty. Pain. Family feuds. Chronic illness. Despair.

Where is God in all of this? How do we trust Him in the midst of such a mess? How are we supposed to handle it all?

I have lost two babies. Jesus held them before I did, and I will miss them for all of my days. At some point during each of these periods of loss, I was told — with the sincerest of hearts and the sweetest of comforting intentions — that everything would be fine because God wouldn’t give me more than I could handle. I hear this adage handed out in all kinds of situations and places, and it strikes a place in my heart that burns quietly . . .

Because I don’t agree.

I can’t handle the loss of children. Some days I feel I can’t handle my own children. I can’t handle my anxious heart. I can’t handle injustice facing the voiceless. I can’t handle the 10:00 news. I couldn’t handle an unhealthy job and living situation. I couldn’t handle my mother’s cancer.

But here I am, having “handled” all of this and more. Was it because God knew I could, so He piled it on? I don’t think so.

Does He give us more than we can handle? Absolutely, but God doesn’t give us more than He can handle. Do you hear that?

God does not give us more than He can handle.

Swap out “we” for “He” and there is truth. One letter changes everything.

I can’t do anything on my own. I am a selfish, petty, wannabe wonderful mess. But when I throw my whole self into Him . . . then I’m getting somewhere.

It is Him, in us, equipping us, loving us, that allows for the handling of these situations.

It is by His grace and patience that we handle really hard mom days. It is with His slow and gracious love that we are able to crawl out of bed when we want to stay under the covers. It is in His peace that passes understanding that we trust the voiceless will one day shout.

We trust and hear His still, small voice amidst all the things we can’t handle alone. In the good and in the straight-up bad, He stands. He handles. He intercedes. He heals. He loves. I have to believe this or I couldn’t handle anything at all.

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. {Matthew 28:20}

He is still with us, and He is still handling, and He is still in control when all seems chaos.

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