Can we skip the hard part?

“Sprinting to the finish line only short changes dreams that need divine time to come to life.” — Jenny Simmons, The Road to Becoming

This week I found myself wishing I could skip the hard part — the part of the story where there’s no hope, it’s painful without a visible purpose, people are at odds, and the redemptive ending is out of sight.

But unfortunately, the hard part is where the becoming happens.

We become more empathic.
We cultivate endurance.
We realize we’re stronger than we know.
We come face to face with our deepest fears and learn how to be courageous.

The hard part sucks. It’s the worst. And I so desperately wish we could just skip that painful process.

But the hard part is integral for every story. We can’t skip it, but we can go through it together. We can acknowledge it’s hard.

We can be real about the struggle. You never know who else is currently in the hard part of their situation.