The Rested SoulSample

You Are Not Alone

When my father was in his fifties, he lived through a bloody revolution in the Middle East. Overnight his secure, comfortable world was gone. He watched as his friends were arrested and even put to death. His own life seemed to hang in the balance. After decades of hard work as a physician, he lost his life savings as banks simply collapsed.

Without warning, everything he knew had turned upside down. All this loss proved too much. For two years, anxiety devoured his mind. Eventually, he managed to rebuild a new life, which ultimately led him to faith in Christ.

Twenty-five years later, I fell into my own dark well as I struggled with burnout. Anxiety became my daily companion, sometimes a low hum, sometimes a debilitating roar.

One day as I sat across from my father, I tried to explain my frustration with my inability to reason myself into well-being. “I can’t argue with these irrational feelings. I can’t talk myself out of them. I can’t fix them.”

My father looked at me, his eyes welling up with compassion. He didn’t give me any advice. He didn’t come up with a plan of action. He just whispered, “I know. I know.”

In the long months it took for me to inch my way toward recovery, I have always thought of that as the most helpful moment of my journey. It wasn’t an answer or a cure. It was simply the loving empathy of a man who had lived through a similar ache and made it to the other side to find peace.

Beloved, you are not alone.

I know.

More importantly, other women and men who loved God have walked this path and emerged on the other side to find rest for their souls. David, who said, “I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart,” understands your struggle (Ps. 38:8). Naomi, who felt exceedingly bitter with loss and grief, gets your dark sorrow.

They’ve been there. Most powerful of all, Jesus, who said, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death” (Mark 14:34 nlt), knows the burden of suffering and sorrow that you carry.

They know.

You are not alone.

And peace awaits on the other side of this journey. There is an end to this travail. Your soul will be quieted. Your heart can find rest.

Settle in that hope.

Your first step is to remember you are not alone. Jesus is with you.

He knows.