WHEN THE VICTORY SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE

In only one month, our lives have been completely rearranged. Nothing has worked out as we expected. We are homeless. We live out of our van. And shockingly enough, those are the things we planned.

Five weeks ago we chose to sell our possessions and hit the road with our family of six. My husband was laid off one too many times, and we figured at the very least, we'd be able to find and create work while traveling with our family. We took a difficult situation and created a daring adventure.

Daring is putting it mildly. There have been days where we were scared out of our minds. We had very little gas, very little food, and no money. We didn't worry about ourselves as much as we were concerned for our four very young children.

We asked ourselves, “What were we thinking putting our kids at risk like this?”
"What were we thinking?"
Such questions were usually asked at the end of a long hard day while sleeping in our van in a Wal-Mart parking lot. These were the times when we felt hopeless and defeated, and fear set in.

But then, something else booted it out. We realized all our married life, when things got tough, we viewed ourselves as victims. We thought we were fighting, but really, we had given up. We didn't believe good would happen, we didn't take action, and what do you know, but good didn't happen. We created the outcome we believed to be true. Not this time. This time, we realized we had choices to make.

We refuse to believe life is merely something that happens to you. A life is meant to be lived with courage and conviction and action. It doesn't just happen. You have to fight to survive. We are learning that literally, but your lesson might be a bit different.

It's easy to live day in and day out not realizing how much your life depends on you. Perhaps you believe in God like I do, but even then, you must not think your life is all in his hands. He may have a plan, but you have to live it out.

Don't sit idly by expecting good to come to you but not doing everything in your power to make good things happen. I don't like the saying that good things come to those who wait. They come to those who fight for their desires with all their might and to those who stay the battle when the victory seems impossible.

Don't go to sleep tonight with a head full of worry, wishfully thinking tomorrow will be better. Instead, wake up and work your heart out, being confident that by the sweat of your brow, you will get what your heart desires. Then, you don't have to wonder if that better day will come. It came because you lived it.

-Erika Estey