I do a lot of traveling. While I book most of my travel myself, on occasion, I have used a travel agent. I have a few friends who are travel agents, and their expertise can come in very handy.  They know how to send me on a trip!

Some people are travel agents for guilt trips. They can masterfully make others walk in a state of guilt. “You should spend more time with me. You should keep your house neater. Your kids are the way they are because of you. It’s all your fault! You should help me out financially. Are you really going to eat that? You need to have more faith.”  

Guilt trip agents are a sad bunch. But, even sadder is when we accept the ticket to take a guilt trip! Guilt trips agents are in your family, at your place of employment, and there are plenty in the Church.

Recently I read an exchange between some folks on social media.   It was a conversation about faith.  It wasn’t long until the conversation deteriorated into one stating that it was a lack of faith as to why the situation did not work out.               

What a guilt trip!  If you just have enough faith, all of life will work out like you want? Just believe God and you’ll get what you are praying for?  I wish it was that simple.

Is faith necessary? Yes! Does faith please God? Yes! The Word tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. Should we walk around as doubt-filled, hopeless people? No! Doesn’t it also take faith to walk with God when life doesn’t work out with flowers and cheerful songs? That takes great faith.

I have learned to trust God when healing comes and when it doesn’t. I trust God when I have money in the bank and when I don’t. I trust God with my tears and my fears. (And I have had plenty of both the last few years.) Hebrews 11 tells us “By faith Enoch walked with God …”. You can find a short version of his life in Genesis 5. Enoch walked with God during a period of great darkness when few men walked with God. Yet, Enoch determined, by faith, to walk with God.

As believers, we must determine that by faith we will walk with God. Life won’t always make sense. Faith won’t always make sense. It’s not always an issue that if I have enough faith, things will work out like I envisioned. I have had to learn to walk with God no matter the season in which I find myself.

This is my testimony, “He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own, and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known.” Some of us need to fire our travel agents!

Gaylon and I just returned from St. Simons Island, GA, where we were a part of my sister Margaret’s eightieth birthday celebration. We were raised rough in a family with eight children. Seven are still living and all were in attendance at this celebration.

As I looked around the room, I almost teared up.  There we all stood ranging from ages sixty-eight through eighty.  We were no longer small children suffering from poverty, abuse, and terror.  There we stood as much older adults. We had overcome!  We had not just survived, but we had overcome.

Several of my nieces and nephews were in attendance.   I rarely get to see these young men and women.  While a few of us were telling stories of what it was like growing up, we reminisced with funny stories and sad stories.  Our nieces were captivated to hear our stories.  They had very little knowledge of what the Wells household had been like.  They said, “We’ve never heard these stories, and would love to hear more.”

The next day at lunch we had those nieces sit with a few of us “kids” as we told them more stories.  Again, they loved hearing about their ancestory.  One thing we said, after telling stories, was how we had all done well in life regardless of how we had started our lives.

May I share some things that have been on my mind after this time with family?

1. Share history with your family.  It’s important that they know what you have overcome.
2. Get together with family to laugh and celebrate.
3. How you began life does not have to control how you end life.

Life was beyond rough when we were growing up.  As I listened to the stories my siblings shared, there were moments of pain.  But, over and over, we came back to laughter and gratitude that we no longer lived in that place!  I don’t want to live in the pain I suffered decades ago!  I want to walk healed and whole.  From a personal perspective, I have been  privileged to raise three sons, who never  experienced the life I knew.  That makes me smile.

I never tire of the testimony of my life!  I was a broken child.  A woman found me, took me to church, and introduced me to Jesus Christ.

The road to get where I am today was long and winding.  The early years of walking with God produced little in my life.  For many years, I  was filled with anger and resentment about the past. My mind screamed about the “should have’s” and “ought to be’s.” I kept a mental list about how my childhood should have been.  There were periods with no communication with family because it was just easier than facing the past…until I saw the light.

As the years rolled by, I eventually learned that I could overcome my past. The story of my past didn’t change, but the story of my future did change!   I could live a “normal” life and raise a healthy family.  God helped me to transform my pain instead of transfer my pain. Through the mentoring I received from great women of  God, I made a decision to go all in with God, to live by His principles, and to trust Him with the healing process.  I’m so glad I did!

Are you stuck in pain?  That can be understandable.  Both Jesus and I have compassion for what you have been through.  Are you ready to be unstuck?  Jesus Christ awaits you with open arms.  He’s ready to walk the journey with you.  There are more chapters to be written about your life.  Your story is not over, and with Christ, the best chapters are yet to be written.

“For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” – Isaiah 41:13