Well, I’m pressing on to the higher calling of my Lord.

– Bob Dylan

It’s a simple line, but an honest one.

But how do we press on when life feels discouraging?

Discouragement rarely arrives all at once. It builds slowly. Prayers seem unanswered. Our efforts feel smaller than the need before us. Over time, giving up can begin to sound reasonable.

But Scripture calls us forward. The Apostle Paul writes, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul writes these words from struggle, not comfort. His hope is not rooted in circumstances, but in Christ. That is Christian hope – not optimism or denial, but trust that God is at work even when we cannot yet see it.

Pressing on does not mean pretending everything is fine. It means taking the next faithful step. Sometimes that step is showing up with integrity. Sometimes it is asking for help. Sometimes it is resting and trusting God with what we cannot carry. Faith does not require certainty. It requires trust. And on hard days, trust may be all we have.

Julian of Norwich wrote during a time of plague, “All shall be well.” She was not denying suffering. She was naming her confidence in a God who enters our pain and does not abandon us there.

So press on. Not in your own strength, but in God’s. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. When that feels like very little, let it be enough. Christ meets us on the road, not at the finish line, in today’s ordinary faithfulness, in the decision to keep going.

Some days are harder than others. With God’s help, let’s keep pressing on.

In it with you,

Chip