When things are awful or when you feel let down by God, don’t talk to yourself about this—talk to God. Take those feelings to Him. Some people get the idea that Jesus followers need to be happy and victorious all the time. Like their faith and their relationship with God is always on the upward swing. But that is not how real faith works. It’s an up and down journey. There are days you feel on point with God and other days when you feel worse than zero. Days He seems close and days He seems miles away. You read about the lives of saints and Jesus followers through the ages and this comes up over and over again—even the people closest to God have seasons of discouragement. Periods of time where it feels like all their prayers bounce off some glass ceiling and never make it to God. Times when you feel God’s absence more than His presence. It’s okay to have negative thoughts and feelings as a Christian. Don’t beat yourself up over doubt and discouragement. God can handle it. You just need to take those feelings to Him and trust Him with them. The first step to getting where you want to go is to admit where you are. It doesn’t do you any good to deny the awful and pretend it doesn’t exist. You can’t move past feelings you will not process. Don’t let a bad situation start to define your identity. Admit the awful so you can move past the awful.