Are you well?

This post is written to link with Five Minute Friday: write for five minutes on a one-word prompt.  The prompt today is “well.”

“How are you today?  Are you well?”

The easiest thing is just to smile and say, “Yes, I’m fine – everything’s going well.”

And it is.

There’s no major crisis, no particular source of stress, no circumstance I can point to which would justify feeling otherwise.  And yet, if I’m honest, there’s a sense of weariness, and a slight anxiety, and just the feeling that everything is not quite well.

It will pass – I know it will.  It’s been like this before, and much worse, and it always does.  I’m not looking for anyone to fix anything.

So why do I share?

Because my word for the year is “truth” and it seems wrong not to tell it.

Because I long for a depth of relationship that goes beyond smiling and pretending everything’s fine.

Because I think we all feel that way at times, and yet as Christians we can be tempted to hide it.

Because it’s part of living in a broken world.

Because I hope it might encourage others that it’s OK not to be OK, that we can go to God as we are and receive his love and grace.

Because our feelings are not the ultimate truth and, no matter how we feel today, we have hope in Jesus that, in the end, it will be well.

How are you today?  How are you really?  Be honest at least with God, if not with anyone else.  However you feel today, may you know him with you, and if it is not well with your soul today, may you know his hope and peace.