For those that help .. For those that love the hurting.. Part 2: She wasn't a professional but .......

She wasn't a professional.


She would be the woman who would help love me back into life.


The thing about walking alongside someone who is mentally ill, struggling with depression, sickness or death is that there comes a lot of moments where you simply don't know what to do... or what more to do. You don't know what to do, you don't know what to say, you might even begin to feel overwhelmed yourself...  In those places what do you do?


More and more I find myself walking along side people who are walking very difficult paths in life.  I find myself more and more learning about the compassion of Christ.  Of what His eyes saw... of what His heart knew.


Before going further, let me go back...


She wasn't a professional..


She was a wife, she was a mom, she had many roles...


I will never forget the first day I met her in the gymnasium of a middle school in a small New England town.  She glowed.  There was something about her that I felt drawn to like a magnet.  Oh so very much I didn't know in those moments.  She would be my on ramp into life...  She would teach me about love in ways I had never known.  She would take a chance on me and it would change EVERYTHING.


She wasn't a professional.


But she had eyes...


But she had ears....


But she had a heart....



She wasn't a professional.


But she had a love that wouldn't quit.


She had a faith that held strong.


She had a fervency that was pervasive.


She laid her life down for me so that I could partake in life.  There were no promises to her,  nothing but the bare minimal.  "The professionals" were saying two to five years to just bring me into a place of being able to function more effectively.  Her tenacity, the tenacity of a mom,  would proclaim something much different.


There was a season where I couldn't be left alone and for a season she drove me to the supermarket, she drove me to my  counseling appointments, she helped me with the children while home schooling her own.  She stepped in like Aaron and Hur and held up our family's arms.


She wasn't a professional.


What am I getting at.... you don't have to be a professional... do you have eyes that see?  Do you have ears that hear? Do you have a heart that hungers for God to manifest Himself in the lives of those around you?


For those that help... for those that love the hurting... In the moments where you don't know what more to do, breath... take a break... take a step back and know this... you... YOU... you are what make the difference....


She was beautifully in my life for a very important season.  I learned so very much from her... her love loved me back into living... Sitting in her kitchen learning how to make monkey bread.. (Still a favorite of my kids.) Sitting around her family watching them be just that a family.  In the most extraordinary ways and in the most normal simple every day ways she loved me and in loving me she helped to facilitate a time where the Lord could take possession of more of my heart.


Others... Others, who weren't professionals either,  have circled my life... they are like you.. they love.. they speak truth... they hope when I can't hope for myself, they believe when my faith is frail, they uphold when I can't utter another prayer....  They see me as He sees me and hold up the mirror so I can catch the picture.


When there are times I don't know what to say, I don't walk away... I am not insecure around awkwardness any more... people need people in those moments.  It isn't even a matter of so much that which is said... it is that you are there... that you show up... that you come along side... that you help strengthen the weak.... that you give hope back to those who can't find it on their own... You show up....


It isn't the hour or two or three or more with the professionals that always make the most difference...  having family.. having friends.. having those of the house of the Lord come and circle around and be the Body,  it is in those moments where unity and love and hope and faith and healing come to pass...


So for those who have not been the "professionals" in my life but have been the brothers, the sisters, the moms, the dads, the friends.. my life rests upon the gifts of grace you have bestowed upon me and I am so thoroughly grateful I could never ever find enough words.... For the times you have laid your life down for me, sought me out, heard my cry, lifted my head, caused me to remember truth, sat quietly by my side, held my hand, walked the extra mile or two, laughed with me and cried with me... given me a place to rest and places to dream about rocking chairs.....  To you all you are my heros.... you are my heart.. you inspire me... you strengthen me... you have taught me love.. You have brought me to Him... You have shown me Him ...


For the others who are not the "professionals" but walk alongside those that are hurting... bless you.. bless you for seeing as The Father sees, bless you for hearing His heart beat, bless you for walking where He would walk, bless you for touching that which He would touch....  May you be refreshed and restored... May your life and your body know rest... May your heart know hope.. may your eyes see change.. may you know the great pleasure of your God as you allow Him to flow forth through you to the "least" of these....


To those who are not the professionals but walk forward in love and in hope and in faith and in courage... BLESS YOU....  I would not be who I am today with out you and your example has set for me a road map of how to then live....

Let's inspire one another towards being the hands and the feet and the voice of our God to the lost and to the hopeless and to those in need....