A few weeks ago, my family was given a sliver of information about a loved one’s health situation that, if true, would have been devastating.
I was overcome with fear and dread, and I retreated deeply into my inner self. In other words, the world went away, and I found myself living in isolation.
When I I prayed, I didn’t pray that the Lord’s will would be done. I prayed only for a good resolution.
Finally the phone call arrived. We had good news! We had wonderful news!
All was well, and my soul was filled with brilliant rays of sunshine!
I quickly left my innermost room and joyfully reentered the world.
The experience of waiting was horrible, and I learned something about myself.
I learned how different I am in good times. When things are going well for me, I find it so easy to offer prayers and encouragement to others.
I can lift them up with great ease and ask God’s blessings on them. I can pray for God’s will for them.
But when I’m in that low place? I’m different.
I have a very good friend who cared for her incapacitated husband for 17 years. Seventeen years. During those dark years, and there were many hard times, she always offered her brightest smile and her loving kindness to others.
I don’t know how she did it.
When my life is going well, I find it so easy to wake up in the morning and pray these words: This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.
But in times of troubles when I pray to God our Father, I think I offer Him half the wedding vows. I offer to love Him and honor Him in good times, in healthy times, in rich times, all the days of my life.
I know that’s not how it works.
That’s not God’s plan for us.
His son Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.
“For My yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
I’m a city girl, and the agrarian reference of “yoke” eluded me for many years.
I understood that a yoke connects two oxen allowing them to plow a field together, but recently someone told me that farmers would often pair a weaker ox with a stronger one.
It’s not hard to figure out that we are the weaker one and that Jesus is stronger. He promises that being connected to Him will make our burden lighter.
It’s a collaboration that we need to embrace. In good times and in bad ones. In sickness and in health. In rich times and in poor ones. All the time.