Jump Start # 3936
Galatians 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.”
It came in the mail the other day. A four page handwritten letter from a friend, addressed to me. These days I don’t see handwritten letters very often. How quick and easy to send a text or an email. As I read the letter, tears came to my eyes. Here was a guy pouring his heart out to me. His wife of more than twenty-five years left him. She no longer wanted to be married. Freedom is what she sought. Want to do what I want to do, is what she said. One could almost feel the tears falling off the pages. I had no idea. I’d much rather read that his wife had passed away. She sought her own happiness and in doing that she crushed his heart and ruined his dreams.
As the letter progressed, my friend has climbed out of the bottom of despair. He has surrounded himself with God and good friends. I wish I could have done something for my friend.
As I write this I think about a few others in our spiritual kingdom. I know of two that are facing catastrophic health issues. The outlook is not good for either one. I pray all the time for them. I think about their families and how these things have turned their world upside down and how so many plans and dreams are now crashing on the rocks of reality and mortality.
Here are some thoughts:
First, I find that the more I care, the more my heart is hurt. The alternative is to not care, but I can’t do that. The Lord wouldn’t want that. The more that one moves to the center of a church family, the more involved, caring and concerned you become. You become the support system that makes a church so loving and special. There are so many happy moments that causes your heart to swell with joy. But, there are also tragic and sad moments that breaks your heart. The love you feel for others leads you to pray.
Second, I find myself often times without answers and feeling helpless. All one can often do is pray. And, prayer is powerful. Prayer is inviting the Lord into our lives. Prayer is asking for the greatest help you can find. You’d love to go and take away the pain that these families are feeling, but you can’t. Like Job’s friends, you can sit with them and let them know you care. Let them know that you are praying for them.
Life can be hard. Life doesn’t offer mercy. Life doesn’t care. Riding off into the sunset, we may fall off of our horse. There are often more questions than answers. We want to look in the rear view mirror and find a reason or a cause for the pain in life. Often, none can be found. Ours is to look forward. And, looking we see the Lord. He’s there. He’s always been there. He’s been there when the sun was shining. He was there when we were so happy and busy with life that we didn’t give Him much thought. But, now that the storms are all around us, He’s still there.
Third, there is such strength and power in our fellowship. So many just don’t get this. Fellowship for too many is eating and playing. But, we know better. Stronger and richer than our physical families may be, God’s people are amazing. They have endured storms. They have stuck close to the Lord. They have scars of victory upon their hearts. And, now, when it is our time to journey through these storms, we do not do it alone. Our brethren are there for us. So many prayers going upward that we do not even realize. In a moments notice, they’ll come. They come with arms full of food and hearts ready to serve. Sometimes these things humble us and even shame us because we have not been there for them. When we could have served, we didn’t. But, that doesn’t stop the army of God. They don’t measure things by the way they were treated.
One of the great strengths in getting through a divorce, a disease or a death is knowing that my Lord is there. It’s also knowing God’s people are there. There are steps only you can take through those valleys. But, the calls of confidence come from those who are right with you.
As I think about these things, I also realize that before long it will be my turn to walk those steps through the valley. It may be my illness. It may be something tragic in my family. I only hope that I can walk with faith and dignity as the Lord would want me to. I hope that how I journey those valleys may help others who follow. I hope I see that there are others, with arms opened, wanting to help carry my load.
What a blessing God has given us as we journey this life. We journey not alone, but with others. We journey with our Lord.
Roger