Forsaken

 

Forsaken.  Not a word one often uses.  But a word perhaps felt more often than some may want to say.

… he stood out side his wife’s window every day – rain, snow, cold. The pandemic rules would not allow him to be by her side as she lay in bed struggling to breathe.  Weeks went by for her all the while unable to sense his presence, feel his hand on hers, hear his voice; isolated from all that was familiar.

… they were supposed to be healers providing care enabling patients to return home to loved ones.  Instead, they were helpless as hundreds entered the doors.  They looked into the eyes filled with fear and desperation, often holding a phone for one to hear loved one’s voice as intubation occurred. Often standing quietly holding a hand as last breaths were taken so one would not die alone.  And as the virus spread sometimes it was the hand of a fellow worker they held.

…they went to work daily to provide care for those who survived, for those who were older and unable to care for themselves.  Day after day not only experiencing the fatigue the job routinely may bring but now daily witnesses to isolation that drained life, having to cover extra shifts, travel to aid other facilities, exposed to the unknown possibly to be the conduit by which their own homes or loved ones would fall prey to.

… families unable to gather to support one another in loss or honor the one who was no more.

…. Owners of a family business rooted in a community for decades watched helplessly as masked individuals broke windows, lit fires, looted and spraypainted the shell that remained – a life of building, supporting community, a livelihood wiped out by hypocrites in the name of justice.

… he took a breath through the bandana around his face.  Heat and smoke gripped his throat.  90% of all structures in town no longer stood including his home which was lost as he fought to save the homes of others.  Thousands of acres burned.  Ash fell hundreds of miles north and the sky was a sickening brownish orange.

…families quarantined, jobs paused or no longer held, struggling - realizing the rent, utilities, groceries, aren’t balancing.

… a society now filled with a culture of contempt nurturing division, unrest and hatred.

 …she spent days in a basement bunker hiding with her two children before she fled.  “I was ready to die”.  First the airplanes and bombs came every few hours, then every 30 minutes, then every fifteen.  There was the constant smell of gunpowder and images of bodies on the street with nowhere to go.

 

We are living in an uncertain time of upheaval.  We each have uniquely experienced this point history in ways that have overwhelmed.  Fear, unrest, anxiety, isolation, discord, depression, loneliness, doubt, exhaustion, sadness, discouragement, distancing, division, burnout, loneliness, disconnect…   There is no fathomable or measurable way to complete the list. 

Forsaken – abandoned. To have been left, deserted, surrendered, set aside, cast off.

Perhaps this word “forsaken” describes best what is being felt…by the patient; the victim abused or discriminated; the medical worker; the citizen whose political class has forgotten; the widow or widower; the orphan; the refugee; the homeless; the elderly; the single parent; the firefighter; the police officer; the teacher; the child; the neighbor…you….me.

It’s taken awhile to acknowledge that the continued onslaught of events over the past few years has eroded wellbeing… mine, yours, ours.  Sometimes people experience a huge massive loss or life altering event that is a tsunami crashing through life with obvious devastation in its wake.  But we have had an unrelenting, uncontrollable, unforgiving storm pattern that continues to bring floods leaving us constantly wading through mud and trying to keep our heads above water.  Some times we don’t realize the cumulative effect as we ignore various parts of the storm or convince ourselves we are far removed from certain parts of the storm until the water comes rushing through the middle of our lives.  The thing that is unique about this set of storms is that the first round forced us to abandon (forsake) a good portion of our lifeboat communities.  For some that length of time has caused disconnect – some have moved along with smaller more immediate supports unwittingly forsaking others; some no longer are capable of reaching out or flagging down the nearest lifeboat holding on to whatever lifesaver they can now on their own and some still struggle immensely to gasp their next breath of air with the continued onslaught and wave of events.  Maybe each of us at varied times can relate a bit too closely to each of the fore mentioned situations. 

What is needed to continue our journey now  - in spite of continued showers – is to acknowledge this word – “forsaken”.  Identify how we’ve been affected and allow ourselves to openly feel what it may bring.  Then move forward with intent.

Move forward purposefully seeking our lifeboats.  Move forward purposefully noticing those around us that may need the refuge of our lifeboat and make room – reach out so as not to unwittingly forsake another.  Move forward intentionally rebuilding the lifeboat community.  Move forward knowing you it’s okay to call out for help.  Each of these will be effortful, need time, and may result being stuck in another onslaught back with that word “forsaken”.

Truth is we do have an anchor of hope in which we are never truly forsaken.  There is ONE that is sovereign over all that may come.  No matter the event, no matter the situation, no matter how abandoned we may feel  or seem, we will always have  this anchor of assurance in the promises of ONE who is ever present, ever knowing and all powerful.  There is no struggle against the fatigue, the fear, the anxiety, the isolation.  There is just surrender into the arms of the ONE who loves and won’t let go.  And we are promised security, assurance, presence and strength.

 

Deuteronomy 31:6  Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your GOD, He is the One who goes with you.  He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:8  And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you.  He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear or be dismayed

Joshua 1:5  No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.  I will not leave you nor forsake you.

Ezra 9:9  Yet our GOD did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9  We are hard-pressed on every side yet not crushed, we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed.

Matthew 28:20  And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

Romans 8:38-39  For I am convinced that neither death no life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present not the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our LORD.