Reflections for April 23, 2014

"It is too light a thing that you should be my servant...."(Isaiah 49:6)  "That I may sustain the weary with a word."(Isaiah 50:4)

Most clergy that I know talk about the pure exhaustion they feel at the end of Holy Week and the Easter Day celebrations.  I sort of get it, but as an extrovert I'm never truly drained by this, at least not before this year.

As some may have heard, my wife was rushed to the hospital on Saturday, with what looked at first like it may have been a stroke or perhaps a TIA. It turned out to be neither. All of this was happening 45 minutes before I was supposed to lead the Easter Vigil at my church, timing couldn't have been worse, though that's hardly relevant.

I felt a sense of "it is too light a thing that you should be my servant..."  or to put it another way, you don't seem to have enough on your plate right now let me add one more doozy.  Yes we got through it, and thankfully she is all right.

Throughout this ordeal which really spread over a 50 hour period, I also felt sustained in my weariness.  That sustainment came from not only my faith in God's presence through this but also by the visible signs of that presence in the guise of Facebook prayers, well wishes, and likes.  I was sustained by those words knowing that people were with Gail and I. 

It is remarkable sometimes how just knowing that people care about you and what is going on, can help us get through crisis such as this.

You never know how energizing a word can be until you've received one yourself.

Blessings,
Ed