Open Letter to My World Weary Sister

Dear Lovely Friend,

I saw it in your eyes today, that exhaustion that comes from dangling with all your loose ends for so long. Yesterday you weren’t sure how you would do today, and today you’re not sure how you’ll do tomorrow. You hoped it would all be over by now, but it’s not, and it may not be for a long while. And there you are, finding the courage to put your feet on the floor in the morning and move forward into another day of living in the not-yet. Another day of letting go, another day of hard choices, another day of white knuckling truth that doesn’t always feel so true. Sometimes the again and again-ness of all of it sits like a boulder on your aching chest, and you can feel it pressing a hole into your tired, tender heart.

It’s no wonder you’re hurting, dear one. The entire landscape of your soul is in upheaval. You have new valleys, new canyons, new ocean depths, and you may not feel it yet but those deeper places are filling. You are becoming a well. Tears may be the flood filling your caverns right now, but the same Jesus who made wine from water is transforming those tears into compassion and grace and hope.  You can hold so much more than you could before.

It’s ok to be weary. It’s ok to only know how you’ll take the very next step forward. That’s how a pilgrimage is done, one step at a time. Because that’s what this is – a slow and sacred journey with worship in every movement. I know you feel a bit fragile, or maybe more than a bit, but there’s strength every time you pick your foot up and put it down again. Every breath is a statement of faith, no matter how ragged. You made it through yesterday. You’re making it through today. And tomorrow brings you another day closer to Home.

I’m praying this for you, that you’ll feel it in your weary, beloved bones:

“What joy for those whose strength comes from the LORD, who have set their minds on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. When they walk through the Valley of Weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs. The autumn rains will clothe it with blessings. They will continue to grow stronger, and each of them will appear before God in Jerusalem.” ~Psalm 84:5-7 (NLT)

Keep walking, sister-friend. You are seen and heard and loved.

5 Comments

  1. Jean Davis
    May 23, 2018

    I love your articles! You have such good insight & ways of expresion!

  2. Dad
    May 24, 2018

    So proud of you Beth.

  3. Lisa Cassano
    May 24, 2018

    Such beautifully worded encouragement, thank-you Beth!

  4. April P
    May 24, 2018

    Thank you for these manna-like words for my heart and in my own exhausting pilgrimage right now. Grateful for how you reflect truth through scripture and give eyes to see in to the bigger picture for hearts set on pilgrimage w/our faithful Abba.

  5. Rose Marie Divincenzo
    May 24, 2018

    Thank you Kathy..What beautiful wording and encouragement.

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