"My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it right, the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours. Maybe nothing is more important than that we keep track, you and I,of these stories of who we are and where we have come from and the people we have met along the way because it is precisely through these stories, in all their particularity,as I have long believed and often said, that God makes himself known to each of us most powerfully and personally." -Frederick Buechner



Friday, October 21, 2011

Unthinkable Circumstances - Stretcher Bearers Part 2

Before we rush onto Chapter 5 (check back tomorrow) I want to think about "stretcher bearers" a bit more. When I met with the gals Wednesday night one of them commented she had never heard that term before.  It's something we have probably all experienced in our life in some way whether we called it that or not.  Now you have a title for those people who just won't let you do it alone.

Here's another story explaining the role of stretcher bearers. http://www.lifelovegreen.com/2011/10/blogger-bible-study-when-i-lay-my-isaac-down-ch-4/comment-page-1/#comment-3684  The part that stuck out to me the most was this:
Wow, we had an amazing bunch of stretcher barriers during and even after our fight with cancer. People inviting me over to their house for family dinners so I could eat with someone, 4 families in particular keep me social. I would say honestly without them keeping me going I don’t think my heart would have been ready for Mac when I met him, but because of these four families it was.  Did you catch that? 4 families - one for each corner of the mat as they lifted my daughter (and her husband before his death) up to Jesus. How did they do it?  They invited her into their families. They did not allow her to be alone.  Once again I am reminded that God created us for relationships.  We all need quiet times, times alone to settle and focus on the Lord. HOWEVER, we were not created to live life without other people "in" our life.  By "in" I mean allowing someone to really get to know us.  When we keep all of our thoughts in our head they spin around and around and how or where they come out no one can predict.  One thing I can tell you is that those thoughts are usually very distorted and do not often really help us in any way. In fact they (the thoughts) usually cause us more trouble.

Think back, tell me a time when you were thinking one thing and then someone shared with you and let you know it really was not at all like you were thinking.  Or share a specific time when you were lifted up by your stretcher bearers.  Have you ever thanked them?

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