When Troubles Increase

The telephone rings. No, it sounds more like a fire alarm or siren…or maybe some predatory creature. Will you answer? Of course. Caregivers always answer the summons, again and again and again.

When will it ever end? The pressure can seem unbearable. “God will either make the burden lighter or the back stronger,” Charles Spurgeon once wrote. For caregivers, the burden rarely becomes lighter. The weight typically increases. We’re responsible for children or grandchildren, or when a parent becomes sick and dependent. Like the psalmist, we cry, “Rescue me and deliver me in your righteousness; turn your ear to me and save me” (Psalm 71:2).

Yes, it sometimes seems that caregiving just goes on and on. We can react in one of two ways: We can grumble and crumble, or we can ask for—and receive—a stamina we never thought possible. As we turn to our only source of power, we can say with the psalm writer, “Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again…. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again.”