The tether in the fog
Injustice can be unbearable. Sometimes accepting life isn’t fair is the only way to be free. Where comparison begins, contentment ends.
There are times when you have to face the hard truth that life does not reward according to effort, intention, or love. That sometimes the ones who show up, who nurture, who love faithfully and without expectation end up on the sidelines.
And the ones who squander that privilege, those who cannot see they have something so very precious, still get proximity, still get influence, still get presence.
It is one of the hardest things to sit with. To know you gave stability. You were the safe place. You showed what love could look like when it is steady, secure, and real.
And yet you find yourself watching from the outside. And it would be so easy to let bitterness in. To spiral in the injustice of it. To get stuck in the endless loop of self pity, and hopelessness.
🌀 In the spiral, it becomes so tempting to start glancing sideways. To look at what I do not have. To focus on what I am not getting. But that robs you of contentment.
Every single time.
And it works both ways. Looking at what you do not have breeds self pity. But looking down, seeing where you believe you are better, that breeds pride, not the good kind, the kind can trick you into feeling good, for a moment.
But it is a hollow kind of comfort. Because it does not actually bring peace, only comparison dressed up as confidence. Either way, it steals that contentment. Because the focus is still in the wrong place.
🌊 But I have learned — or at least I am learning, love doesn’t wither just because it’s not prominent, In fact it provides a grounding that will not be shaken even in a storm, it remains like a tether keeping you connected through the fog.
You realise that your love becomes the lighthouse 🔦. You stay visible. You stay steady. You stay consistent.
You do not chase the ship. You do not scream into the storm. You do not hurl yourself against the shore trying to fix what is beyond your reach.
You simply shine. You hold the line. The door stays open. The light stays on.
I do not get to control how that part of the story plays out. But I do get to decide that remain alight, strong, and stationary waiting for when the ship needs guidance to help steer clear of the rocks.
Life is not fair.
But love does not have to play by the rules of fairness.
❤️🩹 And maybe, in the end, that is what saves us.
Shane
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”
— Hebrews 12:2