Wisdom from Charlotte

"Two are better than one. ... If either of them falls down one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, NIV).

Here’s the thing: We can’t hold one another up if we’re all pretending things are fine.

As I have become more honest about my struggles, an amazing thing happens: The very act of being vulnerable provides a kind of implicit permission for others to admit they are going through hardships as well. There is almost an immediate sort of healing when you share when things get real.

In Charlotte's Web by E.B. White, there is this wonderful scene between Charlotte the spider, who is nearing the end of her life, and her friend Wilbur the pig. Charlotte tells Wilbur, “You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.” 
Life can't help but be something of a mess. I suppose I have let my pride getting in the way of accepting grace from those around me and from God. 
Please share your messiness with me. Together, we can better untangle the web.