Bearing One Another's Burdens (by Hannah)

I was really encouraged by something that was said last night at the 3rd volunteer training session I attended at Hospice. In case you don’t know, Hospice is a place where people with terminal illnesses can go when nothing else can be done for them in the hospital. They specialize in providing palliative care (palliative=relief without a cure). At last night’s session, one of their chaplains spoke

as well as a woman who works at their Life Transitions Center (a place where people can work through their grief and find a way to move on). The state of mind that I was in when I arrived could probably be classified as a type of anxiety. I had just spent a fair amount of time at a nursing home visiting a woman that I had become friends with when I volunteered there. When I met her, she was bright, cheerful, and upbeat, but because of her diminishing health and mobility, she has become depressed and is no longer the vivacious woman that I knew. I went to see her because I had recently been to a library book sale where they were selling off about a dozen large print books by her favorite author. I brought the whole bagful up to her room unannounced, and consequently, I found myself sitting on her bed listening to the problems weighing down so heavily upon her. I don’t know about you, but when I encounter a problem (whether mine or someone else’s), I like to find a solution to it. I was usually quite good in math when I was in school, and I learned a couple of things along the way. The way you do well in math is to find a solution to every problem. When the first answer that you come up with doesn’t fit, you have to find another one. Unfortunately, in the case of my friend, neither one of these scientific ideas would work. I felt so helpless because I knew that there was absolutely nothing that I could really do to alleviate her pain. Sure, I could try to distract her from it, I could try to be the bright spot in her week, but there was really nothing I could do to lighten the load. So, with this state of agitation, I was sitting absolutely spellbound at my training meeting as I listened to one of the speakers talk about the unfixable problems that may come up as we deal with the patients. He said that there is really only one thing that we can do: help them hold the unsolvable problems. You can’t take it away, but you can let them know that you are there, that you care, and that you are praying for them (maybe even with them). Your attentive presence is, in a small way, alleviating some of the pain. So often, we find ourselves wanting to do instead of just letting ourselves be. But that being is sometimes the most important thing of all. The attitude of being and sharing the burden is found time and again throughout Scripture. One example is Galatians 6:2 (NKJV) "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." The next time that we’re faced with someone’s unsolvable issues, let's also remember the words of our Savior in Matthew 25:40 (NKJV), "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." Sharing the cares of those who are weighed down and doing it as unto Christ, can truly be the light that will shine in the midst of their darkness.