Dry Shampoo and Jesus Juice

This time last year I was in my first semester of graduate school, and I was getting ready to begin what would be one of the most trying seasons of my life.

I’m currently in school for my MSW (Masters in Social Work), and part of the program requirements is an internship. This internship is intense. Its 20 hours per week, even if you work full-time, and there are two classes that go with it. This means for 9 months I was taking 3 classes and working 60 hour weeks. My work hours, including internship, were from 7:30 am to 7:30 pm Monday through Friday.

Now listen, I know there is probably someone out there who works like that all the time. And hats off to you – it was horrible.

Also during this season, I went through a big transition at work, I got engaged AND married, and dealt with some family issues. I got the flu, started having daily headaches and weekly migraines, and tried to keep up with all my relationships – especially my relationship with J. If I keep going I’ll get stressed just remembering the difficulty of this season.

I lived on dry shampoo because washing my hair was too much most days, and survived on 3-4 cups of coffee a day. It was not a pretty picture.

But you know, now when I wake up early to work on a paper or I’m sitting in class twice a week, or I have a big deadline at work that is overwhelming – I remember that season. I remember the exhaustion, I remember the emotional and physical toil it had on my body – and this is what I know….I can do hard things. I can persevere and I can get through. I may not look good doing it, I may not make all the right choices, but I can survive.

Friend, I don’t know what your season looks like. There is difficulty in all of them. But let me tell you this – you are more capable than you know. You are stronger than you think you are. You can handle more than you think you can. Jesus made you MORE than a conquerer. You can do hard things. You can walk through hard seasons, and you can come out on the other side.

Jesus never promised this life would be easy, but He did promise He would never leave us. He did promise He would turn our mourning into dancing. He did promise us joy for the morning. He did say we could be strong and courageous. He did promise He is fighting for us, and it’s finished.

Be encouraged. You can do this. You just might need a little dry shampoo and Jesus juice (coffee).

xoxo

Katie