Jesus Will Help Lighten The Load Of A Crisis
OPENING PRAYER:
Lord, help me appreciate your willingness to step in and help me as I meet various crises in my life. Amen
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
REFLECT:
In a Christmas newsletter from longtime friends, Mark and Evelyn Taylor, we got information that was unexpected. Mark announced that Evelyn had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Diseases. Mark is sharing his experience and that of others on his blog, “Unchosen Journey” He has given me permission to share a portion of that journey with you to help those making a similar journey. Here is some of their journey of dependence on the Lord.
“Like most good things in life, memory is something we take for granted—until we start to lose it. And watching memories slip away from someone you love is harder still. Since my wife’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, her memory has been evaporating. I can’t reverse the losses, but I’ve decided to do the next best thing. I’m going to keep a chronicle of this journey. Here, in this space, I want to remember the forgetting.
The journey begins: After more than 46 years of marriage, my wife, Evelyn Taylor, and I waited in a cramped office, December 18, 2019, to hear her neurologist’s verdict. A few weeks earlier she had submitted to a spinal tap, and the small sample of fluid was enough to tell him what we didn’t want to hear. Evelyn has Alzheimer’s disease.
Since then, we have received affirmation and support we cannot measure, guidance and protection from God we can only begin to describe.
And although there’s plenty of grief to acknowledge, we’re also discovering joy.
I’m working and praying not to let our tragedy turn me away from God or push me into self-pity. But I do have questions and a growing list of observations. When life is turned upside down, a person begins to see it in many new ways. Here I want to share some of what I’m seeing.”
APPLY:
Mark would like to share his journey with you. He continues by saying, “Maybe my posts will mean something to any who want to read along and thus, from a distance, walk with us. Maybe it will prod some readers to share their own appraisals of life with loss.
I hope so. It’s a journey made easier by knowing you’re not walking it alone.”
You can follow his “Unchosen Journey at this url: www.unchosenjourney.com. Please visit this site and see how one caregiver is relying on Jesus’ yoke to ease his journey. As Christians we understand dealing with short term crises but being a “caregiver” over the long haul is difficult. It is something we cannot do on our own!
CLOSING PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, help me to be willing to rely on you and others as we make the “unchosen journey” through the unexpected crises we face. Amen