It’s Just Life

“You’ve gotta lighten up, Jess. It’s just life.” – Joan Day

This line has been running through my head all day. In case you didn’t recognize it (you didn’t), it’s from New Girl, a.k.a the greatest TV show in existence. As a good Christian man, I cannot in good conscience suggest that you watch this show–but as a person who greatly enjoys good comedy and beautiful stories of love and friendship, I cannot recommend this TV show highly enough.

At this point, Jessica Day (the main character) has been pouring out her heart to her mother (Joan) about the broken relationship of her parents and what it might mean for her own life. She was clearly very upset and worried about her future as well as that of her parents. And rather than Joan telling Jess that she would be better than herself, or reassuring her that her life would turn out much better than Jess was imagining, Joan instead tells her daughter to lighten up, because “it’s just life.”

I’ve been worrying a lot lately. And by lately, I mean for the past two years. Now you may have just read that and thought, two years is nothing, try 20 you child. And you may have a valid point; but know that this was a significant time in my life because for all of my memory leading up to the past couple years I was such a carefree person that that my recent experience has been shell shocking. Also . . . it’s not a competition.

Exactly what I’ve been worrying about isn’t the most important thing–what’s important is that everybody has things to worry about, no matter how seemingly insignificant they might be. The things I worry about generally involve relationships (or lack of them), and fears of being alone or unloved–the things you worry about may be completely different, like whether you’ll be able to pay your rent this month, whether you’re going to fail your exam tomorrow, whether you’ll survive the cancer from which you’re suffering, or whether your loved one will ever make it back from overseas.

Worry and stress can take over our lives, and it’s amazing how easy it is to let it in. If we’re not actively seeking to find joy in every moment, we can find ourselves wasting all of our time worrying about what our lives will look like tomorrow, next month, in a few years–you get the point. And one of the most important truths in life is that tomorrow never comes. You will never get to the vague idea of the ‘future’ inside your head because there will always be another thing to worry about.

Don’t let it happen. Listen up: you’re not going to be here very long. Think about how much life you’ve lived up to this point, and then think about how many years you might have left. It doesn’t seem like much, does it? You could spend that time you have left worrying about how many people love you, how much money you make, or what you’ve accomplished; or you could enjoy every moment, every day, for all the time you have left, exactly for what it is: a gift.

Of course, I would never trivialize the terrible effect that some experiences have on peoples’ lives. There is always a time and place for mourning. Pain happens. Loss happens. Death happens. The key is the way in which we respond to it.

You may not be as popular as your friends, you may not be as rich as your boss, and you may make huge, life-altering mistakes on a weekly basis. But we all have one thing in common; and that is that we are all uniquely and unfathomably loved and cared for by a God that is greater than every problem we will ever face in life. Whatever happens between now and the end of your time here will pale in comparison to eternity in heaven.

So move on. Try again. Enjoy this crazy, fantastic, broken roller-caster of an experience we call life. Your problems aren’t as big as you think they are. And above all, remember this:

You’ve gotta lighten up, bud. It’s just life.