Neat Time Slots? Not for Mamas!
When I was in school, we had strict schedules with a certain time slot for English, a slot for history, and slots for science, etc. The idea of separating school subjects into distinct classes is an old idea but it is an idea that doesn’t make much sense to me. It seems to me that many subject areas overlap and that it’s more interesting to combine subjects—and probably more effective, too.
When we leave school, we realize quickly that the rest of our lives is far different. Life is fluid. We have joys and sorrows. We receive good news and bad news. We make plans and we get interrupted. Our children need us. Our husbands need us. Our parents need us. Our friends need us. Sometimes we experience all of those things on the same day.
This really came home to me on an October Saturday in 2009. I was sitting up late working on a special gift for one of our daughters whose wedding tea was the next day. The phone rang. It was a doctor at a hospital in Nashville telling me that my mother had had a heart attack, and that he had just performed emergency heart surgery on her. Ray, our daughters, and I rushed to the hospital in Nashville, arriving about 2:00 a.m.
Mother had planned to be at the wedding tea. Instead, she was in intensive care. Early the next morning, we visited her in ICU and found her stable. She assured us girls that she wanted us to go to the tea. Members of the hospital staff gave us permission to take showers in an empty hospital room. We drove back home and attended the tea.
Because of the special occasion, I have a photo of me, the mother of the bride-to-be on that day.
See that happy face. That was the day I realized in a powerful way that I could be very sad and very happy all at the same time. I had expected those two days to revolve around our daughter’s tea. Little did I know that an emergency, deep concern, and three hours on the road would be added into the mix.
You mamas don’t have the luxury of dividing your time into neat time slots every day with only one responsibility per slot. Sometimes great joys and great sorrows are mixed in with the responsibilities.
I don’t know what all of your joys and sorrows are today, but since that October weekend in 2009, I have known that you can have both joys and sorrows in the same time slot. I also know that Jesus understands all of the human things we enjoy and the ones that we suffer.
I can tell you about the mix that Ray and I are expecting today. We are beginning the day sad because we learned yesterday that a precious church friend has entered hospice. After our Zoom meeting with the Notgrass History team this morning, we plan to:
- attend the funeral visitation for a friend’s father,
- go to an eye appointment for me,
- make the long drive to near Nashville so that we can be there tomorrow morning for two appointments at Vanderbilt, including Ray’s 6-month prostate cancer checkup
- have dinner with my brother and my niece
We would appreciate your prayers for Ray and for our friends.
I find great comfort in this wonderful old hymn, written by Jeremiah Rankin (1828-1904). Here are the first verse and the chorus:
Are you weary, are you heavyhearted?
Tell it to Jesus,
Tell it to Jesus;
Are you grieving over joys departed?
Tell it to Jesus alone.
Chorus:
Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus,
He is a friend that’s well known;
You’ve no other such a friend or brother,
Tell it to Jesus alone.
The song goes on to ask other questions:
Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden?
Do you fear the gath’ring clouds of sorrow?
Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow?
The answer, according to the hymn, is to tell it to Jesus alone. Hebrews 4:14-16 teaches us that Jesus is not a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. No, He is One who has been tempted in all things just as we are and yet He did not sin. We can go to Him for mercy and grace for help when we need them.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest
who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus the Son of God,
let’s hold firmly to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but One who has been tempted
in all things just as we are, yet without sin.
Therefore let’s approach
the throne of grace with confidence,
so that we may receive mercy
and find grace for help at the time of our need.
Hebrews 4:14-16