Standing With God In Hard Situations
There was a time in my ministry when the weight of others' suffering was too much for me to bear. I would shy away from the hard moments, the times when a person’s world was falling apart. I convinced myself that there was nothing I could do, that I was only human, and what could a mere man do in the face of such devastation? I remember one instance where I completely failed to serve a member of the community who had just lost a loved one. I didn’t have the words, so I chose silence. I didn’t have the strength, so I chose absence. I ran. I failed.
But something changed in me after my own Gethsemane moment. That moment when I was brought to the edge of my abilities, where I could no longer rely on my strength, and where I faced a choice much like the one Jesus faced in that garden. Would I surrender to God’s will, or would I continue to try to shoulder burdens that were never mine to bear alone? It was in that moment of surrender that I found a peace that has stayed with me ever since. It was in that moment I learned not to run.
Now, when I stand beside someone in their darkest hour, I do not stand there alone. I know that God is there, too, fully present, fully capable of carrying the weight that no human should have to bear alone. I do not fear these moments anymore because I know that God can handle them, and in His hands, all things find their proper place.
In the introduction to Embracing Gethsemane, I wrote about a member of our church who was facing the end of his life. He was a man who wrestled with God, knowing that his time was short and that he would soon have to leave his family behind. But in that wrestling, he found peace. He came to understand that as much as he loved his family, God loved them more. He realized that God could take better care of his wife and children than he ever could. That peace didn’t come easily, but it came surely, and it stayed with him until the end.
That man’s journey taught me something invaluable. It taught me that our Gethsemane moments are not about finding our own strength but about surrendering to God’s. They are about reaching the end of ourselves and finding that God is more than sufficient to meet our need. They are about facing the impossible and trusting that all things are possible with God.
So now, I don’t run. I stand, not in my strength, but in the strength of the One who has overcome the world. I stand beside those who suffer, knowing that I am not the answer, but that I know the One who is. And that has made all the difference in my ministry, in my life, and in how I walk with others through their darkest hours. Because in those moments, I have learned to embrace my own Gethsemane, trusting in the God who is always there, who is always enough.
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Jim
The Chaplain Writer