Care Instructions

I have cared for you since you were born. Yes, I carried you before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime—until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you. (Isaiah 46:3-4)

We all have those moments when we are just incapable of holding up any longer - we need someone to care for us because we have given all we can manage, needing God's help to make it any further. This is not a bad thing to realize - we all need him to carry us through. We might struggle through out of sheer bullheadedness, but if you have tried that one, you know just how overwhelming the experience really is. If you look into my life, you will find that I have done things under my own willpower and self-effort on occasion, but things never ended up being as good as they could have been if I would have just let God help me with it.

Who better to care for us than the one who actually made us? He knows how we will approach the issue at hand, right down to how we will perceive it - as a threat or a blessing. He knows what sends us hurdling down a rocky path and what keeps us on the straight and narrow. To put it in pretty plain vernacular - he knows what makes us tick. It should give us some encouragement to know he will care for us all the days of our lives - from the time we are conceived till the day we breathe our last - then on into eternity with him. 

Look again at our passage - he will carry you along. That doesn't leave any room for stagnation in our walk, does it? Maybe when we 'lack propulsion' in our walk we need a gentle nudge from him to get us going again. The need to be 'carried' doesn't indicate weakness - it shows our dependence upon him. We might not even realize he is carrying us at some points, but as we look back at where we were, what we went through, and where we stand today, we might just see his 'carrying' more than we realized while 'going through' whatever it was.

God doesn't make a show about carrying us. He often does it without us even being aware his hands have bolstered us, lifting us when we were about to fall, and protecting us from things unseen that could have harmed us if we stumbled into them without his care. He made us - he will care for us. If you are feeling a bit like no one is on your side today, take heart. God may not always 'feel present', but he is always present. As they say it in theological terms, he is 'omnipresent'. He is also 'omniscient' - all-knowing. Whatever you are going through today, he knows your circumstances, has made a way through them, and will be right there to take that weight upon his shoulders. You just need to give it over to him and allow him to carry it (and you) through. Just sayin!

Carry me

Back a number of years ago, I undertook one of the toughest hiking experiences I have ever done. It was a 13-mile hike down into the Grand Canyon. The trails were steep, to stay the least, and most were quite narrow as we made the descent downward, so I knew the ascent up was gonna be a 'bugger'. I was a lot younger then, and a whole lot dumber! We packed full packs, small tent, and sleeping bags, along with lots of water because there was no fresh water at the base of the canyon. On the way down, I was too 'prideful' to admit that pack was heavier than heavy! I just took the weight upon my shoulders and plodded along. It was exhausting and my body felt the toll at the bottom of that trail. As we settled in for the night, I remembered looking over at those who were along on the hike and declaring firmly that I was hiring a mule to take my pack up to the top on the way out! Why? I learned there is value in having someone else bear my burdens at times!

Carry one another’s heavy loads. If you do, you will fulfill the law of Christ. (Galatians 6:2)

I lost both toenails on my big toes just because the steepness of the descent down into that canyon, combined with significant weight I was carrying on my back as I made that descent caused significant pressure to build up as I repeatedly dug my feet in for footing. It became painfully obvious to me that I was not a 'fit' pack mule! There are a whole lot of burdens we carry in life that are just way too heavy for us to carry and/or the course upon which we are carrying them is very challenging for us. In those times, are we going to be found too 'stubborn' to admit we need help in carrying them? If you were like me all those years ago, you might be answering in the affirmative to the 'stubbornness' part! Do you know what I realized - I was as stubborn as a mule and acting like one, too!

In the last days of mom's life, I found the burden significant. The work of keeping her clean, dry, comfortable, and 'pampered' in those last couple of weeks was astronomically hard. As she became bedridden those last couple of weeks, I needed help. Do you know what my first inclination was? To just buck up and get it done. It wasn't to admit I needed the help. All these years later, I was still kind 'mulish' in my attitude. Those thoughts of "I can manage this" didn't last more than about an hour. God's still small voice kept prompting me to lay that burden down and let others help me carry it. My sister came alongside for a week, my BFF was there that last week, as was my daughter. They all helped me bathe her, change her linens, keep her dry and smelling fresh, and even helped me wash her hair.

What I appreciated most was the time it left me to just sit with her and enjoy her. I read scripture to her, sang her some songs, and just 'kept company' with mom. If I hadn't of asked for the help with those harder tasks, I wouldn't have had that time to do that. There are times when we just need to lay down our stubbornness and admit we aren't going to be able to carry our burdens alone. The sooner we realize that, the better off we will be! We aren't meant to be 'pack mules' in life - so we need to stop acting like we are! Just sayin!

Cured or Carried?

Good people die from bad stuff. Disease ravages a body. Senseless massacres take tons of innocent lives. Crazy warfare blows homes to bits, leaving children without parents. A car ride to work suddenly ends when a distracted driver runs a red light. I have been asked many times why God allows a believer to die from their disease or accident. Just what was the purpose in his taking the person from those who cared so deeply for them? In moments of silence and deep thought, I honestly could not come up with a good answer for the agony and pain they endured, or the pain now very evident in their loved one's heart. I just don't always understand how God moves all the time, what he plans within the long fights with debilitating disease, or how the sudden loss of a loved one will affect the lives of those who have trusted him for their protection. One thing I can hold onto - God is NEVER untrue to his word! His purposes may be far beyond my limited ability to understand them, but he never "backs down" on his word! He says we will always be in his watchful care and I have to trust we are. He says we occupy this earthly temple of our bodies for a while, but he has prepared a heavenly temple far beyond what we know here in our earthly bodies and I have to trust it will be awesome. We just don't know what today will bring, but we can trust the one who holds us in his hands today and forever.

That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah's well-known sermon: He took our illnesses, He carried our diseases. (Matthew 8:16-17)

After a long day of healing the sick, Jesus is faced with even more who petition for their release from infirmity - weighed down by their disease, tortured in their own bodies, fearing the worst outcomes they could possibly imagine. He has healed the leper, cured the servant belonging to the Captain of the Roman Guard, and raised Peter's mother-in-law from her sickbed - all well-known events by now. With dusk upon him, the demon-afflicted come to him - seeking release, hoping for peace at last - in that moment, he is moved once again into the service of healing and delivering. He relieved the inwardly tormented. He cured the bodily ill. He took their illnesses and carried their diseases. Look at all the action words here:

Relieved - he eased their burden and released them from their oppression.
Cured - he restored to health what once was plagued with disease and death.
Took - he brought into his own hands, his own possession their illnesses.
Carried - he became the bearer of their torment.

The inwardly tormented (those with oppressed and depressed thoughts, leading to all manner of actions that just brought more grief and pain) were given a new outlook on life - released to begin to live without the many burdens which had tormented them for so long. The bodily ill restored to health - certainly the greatest hope of all with debilitating disease. We may never understand the totality of what is accomplished in the point between the "God heal me" pleas until the last breath is breathed. I don't know why some are healed and others continue in their struggle with ravaging disease - but God knows what is transpiring in the two points between "God heal me" and the very last breath we each shall breathe on this earth. He knows the intensity of the "God help me" moment when we suddenly see a catastrophe about to end it all and the moment he embraces us forever in our heavenly home.

This is what we hold onto in the midst of disease or calamity. This is what we count on when tides just don't seem to turn. God is in control - every step of the way - even when the outcome seems contrary to what we'd have hoped to behold. I cannot know fully the depths of all he accomplishes - but I can trust fully in the promises of his deliverance. So, regardless of the immediacy of the outcome, I encourage those who need his healing to come, just as these did those many years ago. Bringing inward torment, bodily disease, illnesses without name - looking into his eyes, beholding his grace, and living in his peace. In the midst of the "fight" perhaps our greatest "deliverance" comes in the "yielding" of our spirits to his control. Cancer sucks. Multiple Sclerosis is a wicked disease. Catastrophe creates havoc in lives beyond what we ever think we can handle. But...God who loves us each with an intensity so deep we cannot fully comprehend it is reaching out to us in the midst of it all. Take his hand and walk closely with him. Some will be cured - others will be carried. We may not know which path we will take today, but he does! Just prayin!