Promise Unrevealed: A blog about overcoming the trails of life

Last month, while visiting NYC, I met a guy named Raleigh Sandler. I was told that he was bright, a genius, and that he was the founder of Let My People Go, an organization that fights human trafficking. When you visit Raleigh’s website: http://raleighsadler.com/#overview, you stumble upon the following quote: “How can the local church be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ if we aren’t being his eyes and ears, too? How can we love someone if we don’t even know they exist?”

I was instantly taken aback by this quote. The quote is based on the work that he does fighting human trafficking but to me those words were powerful enough to instantly stop, assess my life in a few seconds and feel the need to write about it. I quickly began to reflect on the things I want to accomplish and I began to ponder on my actions. I question myself on a daily basis and I ask myself: What am I doing with this gift of life? What am I doing in this world, that could make a positive impact in someone else’s life? I then reminded myself: “Sherry, you are writing. You are already impacting people, you already started.”

You see, my writing has a lot of objectives, and from the title of this blog you can have an idea of the content that I will share with my readers: A blog about overcoming the trails of life. I have known what I want to accomplish for some time now but it was not until I read the overview of Raleigh’s work that my aim for this blog really began to take shape in my head. More so after I met him in person. Yes, he is smart, intelligent, an intellectual. But he is also funny, direct, witty, real, and down-to-earth, but most importantly he is serious about his work and his beliefs. I have no doubt that he will accomplish many great things because of the combination of the persona and his strong conviction of what he is doing. Raleigh reminded me that there are people in this world that strongly believe in God’s LOVE message for this world, and are not afraid to share it and to work for it. I want to share that it is through that message that I have been able to overcome many difficulties this past year and since I surely will encounter more problems, troubles and complications during my time in this earth, I want to encourage people to keep fighting and to keep believing. But I don’t want to do it superficially. I want it to be real. I want people to see that they are not alone.

Feeling lonely and rejected? I understand. No idea where your professional life will be? Believe me, I know the struggle. Did you start a plan, a project, an idea and then it failed? It happened to me. Anxious and depressed? Yes, I have gone through that, still. Does life sometimes have no purpose and meaning to you? I know the feeling. Are you waiting for that miracle, that breakthrough? Guess what? So am I. I am just like any other person in this world that is trying to avoid spending my life on a journey to nowhere. And I want you, the person that is following and reading me, to understand that you are not alone.

I have always wanted to go about my life with grace, inclusion, forgiveness, without confusion and above all, with love, specially love. But it is not easy. I find that every day is a struggle to see my future clearly, especially my professional one. I’m clear on what my mission in the present is but I have no idea what to do next or how to do it. And that makes me anxious and makes me feel out of control. Jeremiah, the “Weeping prophet” –who experienced moments of rejection, sadness and loneliness after his message was not well received- received these encouraging words from God : “I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope” and I don’t know about you but that verse is so difficult to digest. No matter how much you believe, or don’t. No matter how much praying, singing, meditating, believing you try to do, you just don’t see it manifesting in your life. Don’t feel bad if that happens to you. You’re human after all. All of my life I have been in a constant search of what will make me absolutely happy and successful. The search has left me exhausted, confused and frustrated. Sometimes my thoughts are so tangled up that I can’t even explain to myself what I am thinking or what I want to do. I have lots of ideas but fail to put them in action. I have a lot of dreams but year after year goes by and I don’t see them fulfilling. And when that happens, I go to my book of choice to search for guidance and here, in that verse, is where I always end up.

But do you know how I end up believing? I seek help. I surround myself with people that have found truth in those words and they give me hope. They believe that a promise of love, happiness and success is going to be fulfilled in my life. And I hold on to that. So whenever you feel lost, know that I know your pain and I know the fight. I strive to become a loving helping servant, because I care, and because it is my calling to do so. And I will write while I search and wait for my promise unrevealed.

*Photo credit: Yumarie Ortiz