I had a cold last week. I’m astonished how that became THE defining factor of 5 full days. I slept, took kids to school, walked the dog, slept, walked the dog, picked kids up from school, slept. That’s it. On Thursday I read a book, falling asleep between chapters 2 and 3, and again at the 14-15 mark.

I should look well rested. I don’t. I’m still puffy and sneezy. When I left the house for church yesterday, I put the whole box of Kleenex right in my bag.

Such a boring, normal human experience.

So why am I telling you?

Well, because it feels like it summarizes so much of life. We can be plugging along, doing work we’re excited about, maybe writing or creating in some way, finding our grove to help people…and then something really simple sidelines us for a big chunk of time, and it feels (in a way) like the tide has gone out, like everything we’ve worked for is washed away.

This silly cold is forcing me to face down the lie of momentum. There’s this false belief out there (and like all lies, it has a kernel of truth) that for new things to succeed, you need to push and pull and work so very hard until the thing gets rolling. Then you have MOMENTUM. But you still can’t relax, because you have to make sure your wheel keeps rolling. Forever.

The problem is, we can’t keep the wheel rolling forever. Things stop us from pushing it along (like my cold) or maybe the wheel hits a bump and goes flat.

In those moments, the lie tells us it’s over. The Truth tells us, “Chill out. God’s got this.”

It is much harder to believe the Truth. But the thing about Truth is, it’s unaffected by our reaction to it.  It just goes right on being the Truth.

I’m encouraged by this today: That I’ll be back to blog about adoption soon. That there WILL come a day where my head is clear enough to compile the 427 pages of scribbled chapter notes for my next book project.  That I will unwrap the games I bought to play with the Cherubs over Christmas vacation sometime between now and February vacation (or at the very latest, April.)

I’ve quoted this 1,000 times, but God keeps bringing me back to this wise truth offered by my most laid-back friend in the midst of law school finals: “Things tend to get done.”

So if you have a cold today, or are still feeling fried from the holidays, or are looking at the long stretch of winter months ahead and wondering if it’s viable for humans to hibernate, take solace. Take a break. Take a nap (or several). God’s got this. Let’s let Him.