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Our Weekly Devotional

When the World Seems to Stop

Monday, May 19, 2014 • • General
Today, under the command of our Lord to love our neighbors, we must open our ears to the people we work beside or live with or worship with, listening for the words they may have trouble uttering.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ---Galatians 6:2

     Walking the grounds of our hotel over a decade ago, I came across a dignified elderly woman sitting on a concrete bench outside the hotel lobby.  She looked a little lost, so I asked if she was all right.  She wasn't sure, she replied.  As we talked, I learned she was the widow of a WWII vet. She wasn't sure she belonged here anymore, she explained. 

     Inside the hotel, the sounds of reunion beckoned as the sliding door opened and closed on this hot August afternoon in the South.  "It's really his reunion,"? she said, more to herself than to me, the stranger who stopped to chat.  "He loved seeing his buddies. We never missed one of these"?  Her voice trails only slightly, but it's clear she's remembering as only one who loves deeply remembers, adding, "This is the first one since I lost him, you see.  I just don't know if I belong".

     Suddenly the whoosh of the door yielded to an army of voices. I stepped aside as a stampede of old soldiers and old soldiers' wives swept up one of their own in a wave of greetings making it clear she belongs here.

-----

     There are moments in our lives when the world seems to stop. There are moments in your lives when the world is stopped...

     Some among us are watching marriages disappear. Others mourn the changes taking place in our parents, who see but don't see them; who knew them once but don't know them now. An increasing number are without work, and the loneliness of not having work to do is almost as devastating as the effects of no paycheck.

     Illness and/or depression lay siege to some, while others wrestle with the illnesses of their children or spouses. The devastation of the passing of a family member or close friend hovers over many, and its weight seems too heavy to bear.

     Every day, every single day, you and I walk past the 'concrete benches'? where the struggling are seated, often not noticing or pretending not to notice.

     Today, under the command of our Lord to love our neighbors, we must open our ears to the people we work beside or live with or worship with, listening for the words they may have trouble uttering.

     We must avoid saying things like If you think that's bad...,? brushing aside the reality of their loss with senseless comparisons that matter only in our minds. Or This is happening to you because...?, pretending to know what it's rarely possible for us to know, and piling false guilt on top of the pain already there.

     We must also stop saying things like Maybe God is telling you...?, unless God has clearly told us to be His messenger, something He rarely does in times of trial. We must listen more and talk less; absorb their words instead of merely repeating them.

    When others are facing loss or trial, we serve them best by sitting silently on their 'concrete bench'?, waiting for the whoosh of friends whose comfort carries more substance than ours.  For Scripture tells us to:

     Carry each other's burdens...?

     When we think of the One who carried our guilt and our hurts, it seems such a simple command.

--Randy Kilgore

    

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