I remember getting so frustrated over cliches in my teenage years. Not because of the cliches themselves, but because sometimes the cliches are true…yet no matter what they are discredited.
In some ways that frustration has intensified over the years…
Because it’s cliche to say that God is good all the time…but He is.
Because it’s cliche to say that God’s love is all you need…but it is.
Because it’s cliche to say that God loves you right where you are…but He does.
And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve seen how these truthful cliches have been so often thrown into situations with so very little care and attention and love that they have earned their titles…they are trite and useless.
But with the title comes a discrediting of what is being said. And that makes me sad. Because those cliches are still true, even when applied carelessly and unlovingly.
I struggle internally.
I struggle when I see people resisting the truths of God’s love and peace because they are ‘too cliche’.
I struggle deeply when pains are piercing my own heart, because in the moment those truths sound cliche to me too.
But I have decided in the light what I will believe in the moments of darkness. And when the dark moments have come, by God’s grace, I’ve struggled through to find the truths of His Word as more than just a list of cliches…
And I know one hard fought battle isn’t all it takes. I know I’ll struggle again. But next time…
I’ll have past history built up.
I’ll have experience to stand on.
I’ll have monuments raised that I can look back to and remember His faithfulness.
Those truths about God, they are so much more than a cliche. They are truths about a God that we can relate to and have relationship with. Which makes them far more complicated to apply to our lives than a carelessly flung encouragement would imply.
But they are oh-so true.
And they are so worth the time and energy poured into our relationship with God to discover the truth in them.
I’m clinging to the truthful cliches, the cliches that I find proclaimed in the pages of God’s Word. And no matter how simple or trite they sound in the moment, I am choosing that I will believe and press into their Author, the Author of my faith.
I have decided…
Be blessed
<3
