When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.—PSALM 94:19 (NIV)
“Hey, you around?” I texted my friend Jennifer, who was also my manager at the store. I was beat, physically and mentally. It’d been three weeks since my father was rushed to the hospital with chillingly low blood pressure, among other symptoms, and he was still there.
Jennifer called me immediately. “How are you?”
The words spilled out. “I’m so tired. I don’t know what to do. My dad’s in terrible shape. I think what makes me a good daughter and what makes me a good employee are the same thing: I’m loyal and committed. But at this point, I just feel empty, like I have nothing to give.” Suddenly, heaving tears and hiccups came, unbidden.
“I’m taking you off the schedule for tomorrow,” Jennifer told me. “Just stay home and take some time for yourself. If you wake up and you feel better, text.”
I sniffled. “Thank you.”
“This is hard. It’s big stuff, but remember I’m here for you.”
“I know,” I told Jennifer. “And it really helps.” I crawled into bed and slept more deeply than I had in weeks, grateful for a friend’s comfort.
God, when the trials of caregiving have emptied me, thank you for filling me up with the comfort of friendship.
So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.—Genesis 1:21 (NIV)
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.—Colossians 3:23 (ESV)
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.—Romans 12:2 (ESV)
