There is an unwanted guest in my home, who brought fear like I’d never known.

After the guest arrived, it firmly rooted and became as much a part of the family as the rest.

It started in something tangible, but became intangible: a way of thinking, perceiving, and living.

The guest is much bigger than a single chemical and much more than a single issue.

The guest always justifies itself, belittles its impact, needs to be fed, and desires to grow in influence.

To me, it seems the greater the guest’s influence, the more the guest hides and strives to be invisible,

   and the more obvious it becomes to everyone else but the one who invited it in.

To me, this guest is the enemy.

   To you, the one who invited it in, the guest is a needed companion.

To me, the guest is larger than life.

   To you, the guest is minimal and over-exaggerated by everybody else, especially me.

To me, it costs too much, demands too much, devours too much, and takes everything.

   To you, it has provided more than anyone will ever understand or appreciate.

To me, it steals the ability to be independent. 

   To you, it is a reflection of your independence and frees you from conventional limitations.

To me, it blurs a vision of moral code.

   To you, everything is a result of trying to live in my world and it’s.

To me, it breaks relationships.

   To you, I break relationships through my inability to embrace your guest.

To me, the guest causes you so much pain.

   To you, the guest eases and medicates your pain.

To me, the guest has distorted the concept of love, taught you to be selfish and kept you from self-love.

   To you, the guest has received your complete acceptance and sometimes. . .love.

To me, the guest has required my acceptance in order to make you feel loved by me.

   To you, my hatred of the guest is a lack of trust in your judgment.

To me, the guest is unacceptable. It has taken too much. It needs too much.

   To you, the guest is not the enemy. The enemy is my lack of acceptance.

To me, it’s big, and strong. History has proved that it wins. I will not pretend it can be controlled.

   To you, my intolerance is selfish and an attempt to control you and your decisions.

To me, accepting the guest means desiring conflict resolution to the sacrifice of everything else.

   To you, my lack of accepting your guest is a sign of limited, controlled, and conditional love.

To me, loving you while hating the guest is my greatest challenge,

   my deepest hope and my single most important prayer.

The guest can be described as a repeating grenade.

   The greatest impact is on those closest, however, the shrapnel flies for a great distance

         and many are wounded, but mostly the one holding the pulled pin.

The grenade’s greatest achievement is debilitating fear.

How does a person live in the same room with a grenade-pin already pulled?

   How do you love the child of God holding the pulled pin?

   How do you love everybody who stands too close?

   How do you love the person and not enable the unwanted guest? It seems utterly impossible.

   How do you endure the wounds of flying shrapnel while still bleeding from the last explosion? There seems to be no end to the repetitive insanity. It’s like a loop that always repeats with no end in sight.

   How do you trust in God when disappointments eclipse hope and shatter any sense of peace?

The unwanted guest has incredible power to steal many things,

   but it does not win until it steals all hope and robs external and internal peace.

The unwanted guest may have become a tenant in my home. It may lurk in the shadows. It may devour and destroy. But it will not win. I will pray against it in every room in this house. I will stand beside those hit by its shrapnel.

I will no longer pray for the ridiculous. I will not pray that I may fix. I will not even pray that I will understand. I will pray only for love, unrelenting, unexhausted, overwhelming love.

For only love can heal the wounds. Only love has the incredible strength it takes to make hard decisions. Only love can hold up the courage it takes to face another day. Only through love can the required patience be achieved. Only through love is forgiveness possible. Only through love can a future with hope be revealed.

Only through God, is that kind of love possible.

 “For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;

he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.” Psalm 22:24 

“God of love, you did not hide your face from King David in the Psalms, and I rejoice. We are not alone. Pour your gift of love upon all those who live with the unwanted guest in their homes. Flood families with amazing grace and anoint their hearts with deep, deep love.”

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,

so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13