Tonight I finally made the time to read emails, and tears poured from my eyes. People pour out their hearts to me, confess their guilt, reveal their secrets. Everyone misses someone, needs someone, remembers someone.
People are hurting.
I could not reply to each message I received, but if I could, this is what I would say:
Sweet Sister,
I do not believe in the saying that God never gives us more than we can handle. Nope. Negative. False. When we do have more on us than we can take, this is so we will turn to Him and let Him bear it. There’s such comfort and peace found in sweet surrender.
“Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
Rest. That’s what He gives us when we are broken and battered and drowning in more depression and despair than we can possibly bear. That’s what He gives us when we let go of the rope. He catches us and gives us rest.
Your therapist can’t give it to you. Pills can’t. Your friend’s advice won’t do. Even the power of chocolate won’t work. You can’t find true, beautiful rest anywhere but in Him.
Many nights I stand in my backyard with my arms outstretched and I look up to the Heavens. I talk to my parents. I pray. I yell at my dogs to quit barking while I’m having such a spiritual moment. I ask the Lord for strength and wisdom and clarity. Sometimes I ask for a sign that I’m being heard. And sometimes a star falls. I don’t think that’s coincidence.
But most importantly, I seek and find rest when I stand there with my arms reaching high. I imagine myself at His feet. With one command, He lifts my burden and my sorrow. I say, “I can’t bear it anymore.” And He answers, “I will bear it. Rest.”
Rest.
Surrender.
Bear the burden no longer.
He knows every hurt. Every pain. Every loss. Every tear. Every addiction. Every temptation. Every illness. Every injustice. Every desire.
Jesus Himself went through incredible pain. He hung on a cross. Battered. Beaten. Ridiculed. Mocked. He endured pain we cannot even comprehend. Yet, the purpose was revealed on Sunday when the stone was rolled away to reveal an empty tomb.
Sweet Sister, there is purpose in all of it. There’s purpose and perseverance in that pain, that grief, that regret, that longing. Let him take the burden from you, whatever it may be, and hang it on the cross. Let Him turn it into a thing of beauty.
All you have to do is ask Him.
And rest.
