What’s the benefit of expecting pain? It helps us to more fully enter into the beautiful moments of life—the hugs, the smiles, the “I love yous.” Enjoy these moments. Savor them. But don’t be surprised when they’re intertwined with heartbreak. When we expect challenges, we increase our ability to savor the moments of joy and cling firmly to the second part of the verse from John’s Gospel: “Take heart, for I have overcome the world.” 2. Call for help. IKEA manuals always have the same last picture: Call someone. Pierre, a friend of mine, told me that in rural Rwanda, it’s common knowledge that you always need at least four close friends; people you can call at any time, day or night. You need four because that’s the number of people it takes to carry a stretcher. Strong, lifelong friendships don’t just happen; they take intentionality and commitment. Invest in the relationships that matter, and they will sustain you in all seasons of life. When we reached out to a friend as we were in the midst of the pain of adoption, she responded, “We are going to walk this together. And while we don’t know God’s big picture or the end result, I believe many lives will be changed and hearts will be saturated with the reality of true Kingdom loving. Don’t look ahead. Just do the next thing. Trust and obey. One loving act at a time.” In that moment, it was exactly what we needed to hear. 3. Look up. Constantly. In moments of incredible trial, where do we fix our eyes? We might look back and obsess over our past. Previous failures and if-only scenarios can crush us if we let them. We might look forward and fret over our future. This is especially easy when we still have questions about what is going to come in the next moment, let alone the next month or next year. We might look inward and become paralyzed by our hurt. We might look sideways and ask why other people seem to have it infinitely easier than we do. Yet we are to be a people of hope who look up. This is not a cliché. These are true words. When life feels impossibly hard, we remember that we have nowhere else to go. As we read in Psalms 121, “I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, Maker of Heaven and earth.” Look to Jesus, the One who perfectly shows us what wild, scandalous, costly, fearless love looks like in practice.    Friends, as you step out in the significant work of loving others, do it empowered by the Spirit and saturated in grace. Do it surrounded by a community of people cheering you on and supporting you. Do it knowing that God has promised to use all things, both the moments of great success and moments of heart-wrenching pain, for our good and His glory. My hope is that we will be known as people who run to the suffering and the hurting, instead of running away. That we will stop to make time to respond to the needs all around us—even though doing so will bring both beauty and pain. That we would be prepared to live fearlessly and love boldly. And that we will continue to press into the dangerous work of loving like Jesus.  MAY/JUNE 2019 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 31