“Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
As we are all preparing for the Christmas season and the end of the year many people are starting to feel worn down. We are running from this place to that trying to get ready for parties, family gatherings, church events and making sure that everyone has a gift. Maybe someone is going to be missing around your tree or at your table this year, maybe you or someone else is struggling with illness and you don’t know if this holiday will be your last together. All of these things that are particular to this season add to our already full plates and to the burdens we have been bearing and it begins to feel like it’s too much and we grow weary.
I know we have probably never met before, but I am going to unload some of my family’s troubles here before you so that I can share the truths God revealed to me in the midst of the difficulties we were experiencing. My husband and I have been married for sixteen years and have one wonderful son. We both have degrees in early childhood education. We are rule followers and thought if we did everything “right” we would be rewarded with a peaceful life…boy did we have that concept wrong.
When I was pregnant with our son, I developed pre-eclampsia. Me and my son almost didn’t make it and we were told having more children was not a good idea because it would happen again and be worse the next time. Then at two years old my son was diagnosed with Autism. He did not begin speaking until he was almost five years old when God helped provide a service dog for him. He started making great strides. The dog was a Godsend and we adored him. The dog died suddenly of cancer in November of 2019. A few years prior to this, I developed an Autonomic Disorder called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. The ailment leaves me feeling extremely fatigued and affects much of my daily life. Already feeling like our plates were full, in December of 2019 we found out my husband has a life-threatening disease called Wegener’s Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis. Essentially his blood vessels are attacking his own body and the treatment is to shut down his immune system.
We had a treatment plan, we were worried, but it was going to be okay. The doctors told us we needed to be extremely careful during cold and flu season because my husband didn’t need to catch any illnesses since he already has lung involvement. Then we all know what happened in March of 2020. My husband has had ongoing treatment the entire three years since diagnosis and we just received the news that he would need two more years of infusions to keep the disease under control. So, if you are doing the math, that means my family will need to live in quarantine for a total of five years. FIVE YEARS!
We are tired. This load is heavy, and we have grown weary. We have asked why God, why us! And along the way we feel like He has answered other questions not why but what He can do and how He can use our situation and even us. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul says that he asked God three times to remove the thorn in his side and he said God answered back in response, “my grace is sufficient, and my power is made perfect in weakness”. So even though we may not know why this is happening we have been able to see what God can do with it. He can give us grace and strength in this place. Sustaining us in a way we never thought possible. This has certainly been the case with my family. We would not be functioning still without the strength God gives. He never told us that if we follow Him, we will never encounter difficulty.
I think where some of us mess up (me I mean me) is that we mistook what Jesus was saying when we read Matthew 11:28-30. He wasn’t saying there is no yoke, there is no burden. He said, “you will find rest for your souls,” with me, “my yoke is easy, and burden is light”. He didn’t say follow me and you will never have to carry a burden, He said, “come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”.
Things are going to happen in our lives that are difficult, that are hard to swallow, that are heavy to carry. In John 16:33, Jesus assured us, “in this world you will have trouble,” but then He offers us the truth we can cling to in the midst of that trouble, “but I have overcome the world.” Friends, it is not that we are never going to experience trouble and hardships. If anything, we may see that those people God has a purpose and a plan for may experience more things than most. Like Paul. Like Job. These difficulties we are experiencing, God may be using to grow us. Or He may be using the place we are in for someone else’s benefit. I often wonder if Paul would have been able to write so much of the Bible had he not been imprisoned.
I know my family is feeling weary right now. We are rundown and exhausted from carrying the weight of our situation, but I also know that God is still working in it and through it. He is using it to grow us, He is placing people in our path who are ministering to us and our story of how He continues to carry us is being shared. Isaiah 40:31 tells us, “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint”. When we are feeling weary we need only to know where to place our hope to be sustained.
I do not know the thing you are facing right now, but I know the one who has the strength to help you carry it. I know because He continues to give rest, peace and comfort to my family. Please do not give up. Remember Galatians 6:9 friends and, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up”. Allow God to help carry your burden, to give you rest, to renew your strength, and remember He has overcome the world!
- Jaci McCarty