In the space of a few short months, it felt as if rocks were crushing me one after another. I lost my mother unexpectedly. My husband suddenly lost his job of 24 years. We had to uproot from our comfortable small town and move to a huge, unfamiliar city to find employment. Once there, we still had to be caregivers for two elderly relatives.
My health finally crashed from the weight of all these stones. Then our oldest son dropped a boulder. He had turned his back on God and wanted nothing more to do with him, mocking him and his Holy Word.
I believed the promise in 1 Corinthians 10:3 and had seen it fulfilled many times before. But how could I handle the spiritual death of my firstborn? Did I fail as a mother? I cried out to God from the anguish of my heart.
God faithfully provided a way of escape in a most unexpected way. A ten-year-old boy in our new church had recently lost his beloved grandmother. He swiftly “adopted” me as a surrogate, even sitting next to me in the pew. That physical contact from a bereft and loving child saved my faith from being hopelessly crushed.
While our prayers may not be answered in the way we want, God will respond to our cries. Instead of despairing that things are not turning out as we hoped, let’s keep our eyes open for the ways he begins to lift the weight from pressing on our lives and brings relief, stone by stone.
Lord, help me to grow in my faith and trust that you will always provide a way of escape when I am tempted to despair. Help me remember to simply look for it! Amen.
Go Deeper — How do you act when things don’t go the way you expected or desired? Do you feel as if you have failed?
Read Further — If you are a person who tends to worry, read Don’t Google Your Worries.
Photo Credit: Johanes Plenio