I love to tell stories and I
love to listen to others tell stories. I guess I just love stories. Recently a
good friend told me a story I thought was worth sharing because it reminded me
of something important, something I’ve known for a long time but keep
forgetting. I’m sure my friend won’t mind. I’m not stealing her story, just borrowing
it so I can share it with you!
Over the Christmas break my
friend and her husband took their two sons on a long and pretty ambitious camping
trip. Lots of planning and preparation went into it. My friend is the queen of
planning and preparation!!! If I ever grow up, I want to be as good at planning
and preparing as she is!
Their camping holiday saw
them visit lots of interesting places and do some wonderful things together.
Sitting in her kitchen, listening to her animated account, it sounded like a
pretty amazing holiday, the sort of holiday they will remember forever!
My friend is a great story
teller and I loved listening to her lively description of the highlights, picturing
events that when strung together, made the ‘best holiday’. I chuckled as she
described one event. It included a set of parents, two sons (one teenager and
one almost-teenager), long hours together in a confined space (the car), in the
middle of summer. It brought back a torrent of memories! Aaah the joy of
travelling long distances in a car with teenagers!
Another event which will possibly
sit forever in the memorable category was the night they encountered a storm. With their pop-up camper trailer set up on a
foreshore in South Australia
Surrounded by her sleeping
family, for two hours she lay in her bed checking half hourly weather updates
and making contingency plans in her head, should they need to evacuate.
Eventually at 5am she woke her husband and this is the part of her story that reminded
me of something I already knew.
With her husband awake her
anxiousness was relieved, so relieved that although the wind continued
unabated, she went straight to sleep!
There was such a powerful
message for me in that little chapter of her story! None of us travel far down
life’s pathway without ample cause for worry. On some stretches of our journey,
worry is a close companion, shadowing our every step. Then at other times we
encounter ‘him’ but once in a while. No matter how often we meet ‘him’, there’s
always the temptation to stop and entertain ‘him’.
That day in my friend’s
kitchen I remembered again, what I’ve known for a long time, that nothing good
comes from entertaining worry. One of the oldest books in history has this to
say about the futility of worry, “Can all your worries
add a single moment
to your life?”
I find it
interesting that as soon as my friend knew her husband was aware of the
situation they were in, she was able to relax. It was as if she had passed her
burden of worry to him and when he took it, she was released. It was this very
notion that served as a reminder.
As I sat
listening, I recalled trying times in my life when I have experienced the same freeing
release as my friend felt, times of knowing that God was ‘awake’ and present in
my storm, when I almost literally felt I was handing my burden of worry to Him.
Words don’t do justice nor can they adequately describe, the almost unreal
sense of freedom in the midst of turmoil.
However, here’s
the strange part. Having had these powerful experiences, it seems strange that
in times of trouble or difficulty, my default position is still so often to
worry! I guess that’s why I need these little reminders. They bring me back to
what I already know, that worrying serves not good purpose in my life. God is
always ‘awake’ and present, even in my ‘storms’, and if I pass my burden of
concern to Him, I will again experience that freedom and release.
Just beautiful. I need this reminder today! xx
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