I Need To...Be Strong For the Other

The car needs cleaned…then I need to put fuel in it. The clothes need washed, the floors vacuumed. The

yard needs mowed and then sprayed for weeds. We need to pick out the flooring and paint in order to spruce up the house, and then it needs someone to complete those tasks. I need to pay those bills then read that book. I need to have lunch with this friend and then help another. I need to go to work, and I need to complete some training. I want to watch this movie and I want to go on vacation. I’d like to move to another, a different house, but I need to be content with the one we have. I want to climb stairs and exercise more, but I don’t have much desire to accomplish that. I’m tired of the routine, but the routine is sometimes the life of the responsible…getting things done that need to be. 

Overwhelming…these are only a few of what passes through a mind or a life, sometimes the responsibility of it all is just so very overwhelming. 

Oh, I have my problems for sure, but how can I help you with yours? Are yours such that they are bigger than mine. Or, are you not even aware that mine are so much more significant and serious than yours. Yet…what you’re living through at this moment, you are not even able to recognize that I’m dying in my own agony. 

Paul writes to the Philippians, “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding shall guide your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.”

A Peaceful time for Father and Son at Ollalie Lake

Often we think that our life in this day and this time or this location is so much worse than any other. It’s likely that in reality any place at any time and for anyone throughout the history of man has experienced very stressful moments or periods of time in their lives. The question perhaps is how do we pull through those times when so many within our circle are in the same moment of life? When the truth of Paul in Corinthians, “If one suffers, all suffer together and when one rejoices all rejoice together” is not effective because we’re all suffering. 

Might we be in search of the all surpassing peace…hopefully able to support the other.