How do you respond in a crisis? I have always been one of those people who just puts her head down and does what needs to be done. I push through the difficulties, often not stopping to check what I am thinking and feeling. I just do the next thing until the crisis is over! Then when I come out on the other side, I look back and see how God worked in the situation. This tactic is not working too well right now because the length of the “crisis” is so long. It’s been six months of unprecedented craziness. That’s a long time to keep your head down!

There is such a general feeling of overwhelm, anxiety, and restlessness in our world right now. Some have the blues because summer is ending and the days are getting shorter. How will we manage the pandemic when we can’t be outside? Others are fraught with loneliness during a time when it is difficult to do anything about it. Many are struggling with how they can possibly work from home and help their children with virtual school. People are worried about finances due to lost income. Some look at the news and fear that the world is literally coming to an end. Then there are the three biggies: political weariness, Covid fear, and racial unrest (in no particular order) not to mention the wildfires!

God has shown me that there is a better way. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said his yoke is easy and his burden light. Recently, when talking about these verses, our pastor put up a picture of two oxen yoked together. I was really impacted by this photo. It showed two oxen shoulder to shoulder with a yoke connecting them. As they worked, they were fully in partnership. You can imagine how much easier this would make the work. I have not always yoked myself to Jesus during difficult times. I have often tried to do life in my own strength. These verses from Jeremiah 17:5-8 really spoke to me the other day:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
    and makes flesh his strength,
    whose heart turns away from the Lord.
He is like a shrub in the desert,
    and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in an uninhabited salt land.”

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength…” If I am expecting my own flesh, my own strength to get me through I will not make it through this year. Additionally, this verse says, don’t rely on others to save you. If I expect a politician, economist, or a health expert to get me through, I am sorely mistaken. If we rely on those, we will be like a shrub in the desert, we will wither. Then the verses go on to say:

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

When I read those verses, I thought, “Mic drop for 2020!” We are in the heat right now, we are in a year of drought! The woman who trusts in the Lord, is like a tree planted by water, it will remain green even when heat comes. We send our roots by the stream by spending time in the Word and in prayer. We do this by meeting with other believers on zoom or in person.

This is the time to lean into God. This is the time to yoke yourself to Jesus. I have been envisioning that picture of the yoke each morning. I am visualizing myself shoulder to shoulder with Jesus, pushing through the day together. I make a conscious effort to walk with Jesus throughout the day. I picture us doing life together. I don’t leave him when my morning time with God is over. I yoke myself to Him because we weren’t created to do it alone.

My question for myself and for you is: Are you handling this heat differently than those who don’t trust in the Lord?

Let’s let our hindsight of 2020 be that it was the year when “we were not anxious in the year of drought,” but instead that our “leaves remained green” because we trust in Him.

ABOUT OUR BLOGGER

Bonnie Kotler loves to laugh and considers laughter as the best medicine. (Psalm 126:2) She is a licensed professional counselor at The Peacemaker Center and has her own private practice, True North Counseling. Bonnie and her husband, Mitch, have two daughters, three sons, five grandchildren, a 125 pound mastiff and three grand-puppies.

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