“And let us not grow weary while doing good,

for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

(Galatians 6:9, NKJV)

 

Is God telling you to go, but your flesh is saying, no? If so, I think you should listen to God, He knows what’s best for you. Although we may not want to do something that God is asking us to do, we must realize that sometimes that prompting to go is for someone else’s sake.

 

In July 1993, I had an experience that changed my life. It was the beginning of what I thought was the end. I had gone to work one night, I was working the “graveyard shift” 11 to 7, when I collapsed at my desk. I was rushed to the hospital and told; I might have had a stroke. My blood pressure was sky-high, and my stress level was even higher. My family and I were in the middle of preparing to move, the next month. It would be the first time that I would have my own apartment. My daughter and I had lived with my family for years and it was time for us to be on our own. I was so excited, but I was distressed because I didn’t feel well. I had been suffering with severe neck and back pain.

 

Back then, I was very familiar will sickness, I was born premature, with a hole in my heart (atrial septal defect), and after years of suffering and fainting, in 1982 at 18 years old, I had open heart surgery to repair the defect.

 

The morning after I collapsed on the job, I was sitting on a hospital gurney wondering how I was going to get home. I had called my family member, who had taken care of me for years, but she told me, “I’m tired and I’m not coming all the way out there to get you!”

 

I was being released, but I was stuck with no way home. While the doctors prepared my release papers, the morning supervisor walked over to me. I looked up to notice her face smiling at me. Her name was Ms. Sandy, and she inquired about how I was feeling, and asked if my family had been notified. Ashamed and embarrassed, I passed the message on to her. “I’ll take you home,” she offered.

 

The entire ride I sat wondering, what had I done so wrong to deserve to be left, stranded. I wanted to cry my eyes out, but I held my composure as my body laid weak against the seat. When I returned home my loved one inquired about my diagnosis, “They really don’t know what’s wrong with me, but they think I might have had a mild stroke,” I replied and went to bed, for years. That would be the last time I would see Ms. Sandy, because that was the last day I would work for that company. I went out on long-term disability and eventually had to go on Social Security disability.

 

In times when life gets hard, especially when you have been serving for so long, and you feel completely depleted of energy to care anymore; just remember to let God be your strength. Psalm 46:1 reminds, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

 

Although I wasn’t born-again at that time, I had to forgive my loved one, remembering that she had always been there before, but in that season, she was just tired of caring for me. She had been doing it since I was born, and by the time I was 30 years old, she was worn out.

 

God has a peculiar sense of humor because He has now made me a caregiver, even for her. Every day I serve, I understand how easy it is to want to give up and walk away. Physically, the serving is sometimes draining, but emotionally it can be just as challenging. Regardless of the challenges as God’s children, we can’t grow weary in well doing because if we do, we might walk away and leave someone stranded when they need us the most.

 

Family life is the most challenging of all the relationships, but it’s also the most rewarding. Every bit of love and care that is sown creates a strength in our loved ones that helps them to press on. I encourage you and myself to think of others when it’s so much easier to just think of ourselves. We can’t be there for everybody, but if we ask God to be our strength, we can be there for somebody.

 

One person that receives our love, is one person that can pass on that love to someone else. One family member we love is another family member that is strengthened to pass on that love.

 

Galatians 6:9 says, “…that we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” I believe that the greatest blessing that we will reap for doing well; is to see someone’s life doing well because we didn’t walk away, when our flesh wanted us to.

 

Prayer:

Father, please help us to be strong in times when we feel the weakest. Help us to never turn our backs on anyone when we have the ability to help them. Help us daily to find our strength in You, so that we can share Your strength with others. And help us especially as family members to honor each other by being present to love each other. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.