Reason #925

I woke up this morning, and in an attempt to get to work in a timely manner, I had to sacrifice washing my hair. Thankfully, I slept still last night and Scout chose to sleep by my legs. Many times, she opts to sleep on my head leaving my hair looking somewhat like a bird’s nest in the morning. Anyway, this morning I straightened the sides of my hair, teased it a little more, and after a few squirts of hairspray it looked fine. I started to put on my make-up only to realize my face was in full on rebellion. I had blemishes in spots they normally don’t appear and in the regular spots, too. I thought this stuff was supposed to get better with age, not worse. Clearly, that is a common misconception. Either that or the age limit has changed and I’m still in the danger zone.

 

I had some skin issues in junior high and high school, and I spent my fair share of time at the dermatologist. I tried every cream, wash, and pill under the sun to try and clear my skin up. Nothing seemed to completely take care of the problem, and I constantly found myself discouraged. I know I wasn’t the only blemished girl in the school, but it certainly felt like it. I looked at the other girls in my class and envied them. The unfortunate thing was that I was in a class full of natural beauties, and that made my problem a million times worse. I finally asked my parents to change dermatologists, and the first appointment I had was with my new doctor went exactly as I had hoped it would.

 

I had heard about this medicine called Accutane. In fact, I had even seen it’s results play out on the faces of some of my other classmates, and I knew that it would be the trick to taking care of my skin issues once and for all. I told my new dermatologist all of the measures I had tried to eliminate my skin problems. He agreed that since none of those medicines worked, he’d give me the good stuff. A medicine that would, without a doubt, work. But it had some serious side affects. So serious that it got pulled from the shelves years later. I didn’t care. All I cared about was obtaining a fresh face, so I was willing to sign that medical waiver in a heart beat.

 

It worked. My face was blemish free, but then some other things began to happen. My lips were so dry that they constantly cracked and peeled. My skin dried out so much that I had noticeable dry patches all over my body. But I thought it was worth it. I could endure these little inconveniences for clear skin. And after almost a year of being on the medicine, my dermatologist was pleased enough with the results that he took me off of it. He told me the effects would last for about 4 years and by then I should be “out of the woods.”

 

Well, he was partially right. The effects did last for a few years, but it eventually wore off. Thirteen years later I find myself still buying the same products teenagers use, and I wonder if it will always be this way. But then I am reminded about my walk with the Lord. Because we’re all blemished people, you know. We all have our faults and weaknesses, and we just want to take care of them once and for all. We don’t want to deal with them on a daily basis. Go away, troublesome issues. We’ve dealt with you long enough that you should no longer be a problem, we think. But they don’t go away. They stick around, constantly reminding us of the fact that we’ll always be blemished. We’ll always have this struggle. Sure, it’s better at sometimes than others, but it never completely goes away forever. We can try to cover it up. We can do our best to hide it, but when we’re stripped bare, it exists. And so we have to take it to the Lord. Every day, every week, every month, whenever the challenge makes itself known, we go back to God and we thank Him that we aren’t defined by this struggle. That we’re so much more than these issues lead us to believe. Even though we’re flawed and blemished, we’ve been made perfect in His sight and one day our perfection will be brought to completion when we stand before Him. And until then, we allow ourselves to be humbled before God, praising Him that this isn’t our permanent state. We’ll only be broken for a while, but one day we’ll be whole, flawless, and free of the struggle. Hang in there, friend, eventually we really will be “out of the woods.”

 

#925 - Because one day, He'll deliver us "out of the woods."

 

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." - 1 Peter 5:10