"God never gives us more than we can handle." I've seen and heard this a lot lately. And, to be honest, I get the urge to scream every time. It's not true and it's not Biblical. I've battled depression most of my life and would have told anyone that I understood the depths of despair that David speaks about in Psalms because I had experienced them. I truly thought I had. Then I lost Bowen, and now almost a year of a life that I was supposed to have, and realized there are places grief will take a person that I did not even imagine existed before. Believe me, God gave me immensely more than "I" could handle, at least on my own. The Bible does not promise that the nightmares will stop. Instead, It promises that we, those who have accepted Him, can do "all things" through Christ. God promises us strength through Himself. It does not make the grief any easier, and the pain of losing a child, a husband, etc. is no less devastating. But it means we have help and God will hold us and keep us and when we are in those depths that David refers to, He will be there with us to give us strength.
"This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we'd be held."
Natalie Grant "Held"
-Cheri Rigby
Yesterday as I was checking my Facebook I was moved by a "status" a friend shared. I asked her for permission before sharing it here.
Cheri is a wife and a mother, a mother to eight and to one who lives in heaven with Jesus. I've known Cheri for 10 years now, if not a little more. She battles depression, even before her life was recently shook by the unimaginable, the stillborn birth of her baby boy, Bowen. Without the Living Word of God flowing deep inside her heart, the well spring of Life, For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. -Philippians 4:13, she acknowledges Christ her Savior, his strength not her own, who upholds her through the unbearable.
Previous post: Smile of Perseverance