No, this is not a post about your favorite movie coming out in 3-D...although I wish it was. This may be different from anything I've written so far, but who wants to read a blog that is nothing but writing and life updates? Certainly not I, so here goes.

The Three D's. What are they?

They say that Satan uses three basic weapons to try and take down the Christian and they happen to start with D.
Deception.
Despair and...
Discouragement.

Deception is an easy one, because we all know the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. Yes, even Eve herself whined to our Creator, "The serpent deceived me and I ate!" Every day, we are faced with Satan's lies.
"It's okay to sin against God...after all, you've had a rough day and it'll make you feel better. " "Go ahead and yell at that driver...they deserve it!" "God hasn't forgiven you," "You are more important than anyone else," Etc, etc, etc.

Then there's despair. Let's face it. The news is blowing up with horrible stories about how awful humanity has gotten. Sometimes it's easy to fall into a state of utter hopelessness and...despair. But despair is often prefaced by something else.

Discouragement.

And that, my friends, is my struggle right now.

I don't know everyone who will read this post. But if you are reading this, I am going to be perfectly honest with you that sometimes authors and musicians and Christians alike face that nagging feeling of discouragement. That feeling that no matter what you do, you'll never amount to where you want to be. None of your friends care for you anymore. And it goes on, and on, and on.
Discouragement has no one specific...it has thousands. Chances are, if you've been alive and ever tried to create or achieve something, you've faced discouragement. The drive to give up and never go back. To curl into a fetal position for the rest of your life.

I don't know why I'm discouraged. After all, life is pretty good right now. (Dare I say). I am getting closer to getting engaged to a wonderful man...the man I've dreamed of my entire life. I have three published novels, I've been in countless stageplays, I own my own business after leaving three horrible jobs...so why do I feel this way?
The world today is a sad place. No one wants to go deep with our Creator today. No one wants to be a true friend. They're your best friend, until someone better comes along, or until you move 800 miles away and aren't around all the time. "That's just life." Don't give me that. It doesn't have to be just because culture says it's normal. It still HURTS.
I have lost a lot of friends in my lifetime. Most of them in 2019. But this year would not be complete without the loss of one of my best friends and the excitement of thinking that I had made a bunch of new friends...only to find out that they don't really care about me at all.
Not to mention that I'm in my mid-twenties and had high hopes of where I would be right now...but few of them are coming to fruition and some of them aren't happening as quickly as I'd like for them to be. I feel like I wasted two years of my life when I sold my soul to a job that was soul-sucking and life-draining. I regret those two years where I lost all connection to my online friends and my writing, because I was always too busy to write.

I'm sure you're ready to put away this post right now...but just hang with me a little bit longer. Because in my fight against discouragement, I am learning one thing.
Don't give up.
What I have to quote isn't from the Bible today, so I hope you'll forgive me. There will be plenty more Bible verses in the upcoming posts, but the quote that sticks out to me the most today is one from none other than J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King."

Sam: "...It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end.
Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come.
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.
Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now.
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something."

Frodo : "What are we holding on to, Sam?"

Sam : "That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for."

Samwise Gamgee has always been one of my favorite characters of fiction. This is one of the reasons why.
So if you are battling discouragement this week, I ask that you just stop. Take a breath. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. There are millions of us battling this. I have but one request for you this week. As hard as it might be, as difficult as this week may seem, as bleak as your life has become? Don't give up. Keep on fighting, keep holding on and remember.
Even the Darkness must pass one day.
And on that day when we stand before our Creator, able to say that we never gave up, even when things are hard?
Those are the stories that really...really...matter.

Thank you for reading with me today. I hope this blesses your week. Happy last day of Summer everyone!