I've chosen to laugh. Why? Because this situation isn't worth crying over. Sure, my roommates and I had to do an emergency move out of our apartment, but we've seen God's provision like never before in the last few days. Family and friends have reached out to help and we're taken care of. The Lord is so good.
Imagine having a fun day out on the town, exploring and being all touristy in your city. You come back to your basement apartment in the evening to find it completely flooded with raw sewage. The drainage system below your apartment is clogged like never before and when the plumbers arrive, all they have to say is: "We've never seen this before. This is bad."
My roommates and I moved out 24 hours later, staying with various family and friends. 48 hours after the flooding, we spoke on the phone, trying to wrap our minds around what the heck just happened. What on earth? What do you do when your life is so suddenly disrupted and you no longer live with the girls you enjoyed living with? What do you do when you have to change everything? Your commute to work, your living space, your routine, your habits of living in a specific space that you pay rent for? Well, my roommates and I discovered that laughing helps keep you going.
We believe that laughing keeps your focus and perspective in the right place. Worse things have happened to better people, so if you're sloshing through raw sewage water in your apartment or struggling through some other crisis, remember that seeing the bright side and laughing along can actually help you find solutions. Freaking out doesn't help anyone. It only raises your blood pressure and worsens your health. Yes, you're going to be stressed, but know that God is in control even if it doesn't seem like He is. He is, always.
Another tip for handling life's struggles is to take a big bite of humble pie. If you're going to make it out in one piece and actually learn something valuable from the experience, you're going to need to humble yourself and ask for help. I used to think that asking for help meant that I was weak and couldn't do it on my own. I've come to realize that you NEED others in your life if you're going to survive and thrive. If my roommates and I didn't have friends to help us move all of our belongings out of our flooded apartment, what would we have done? Spent copious amounts of money on Uber rides from our flooded basement to wherever we were going to live next? Or would we have had to just stay in the flood waters because we had nowhere else to go? This entire situation has shown me the invaluable value of friendship and family ties.
So, are you struggling through a crisis? Here's a three-step plan to help you survive and then thrive: pray, laugh, and take a big bite of humble pie. And then just take it one day at a time. That's what I'm doing through this entire ordeal. When I get overwhelmed thinking about this whole thing, I remind myself: pray, laugh, humble pie.
