Fr Peter Helman

Dear beloved,

So many thoughts run through our heads when we’re caring for someone we love. What will tomorrow or next week or the month ahead bring? How will the results of the biopsy come back? How will I care for the rest of my family? When will I find even a little time for myself to rest and gather strength? There is something deep at the heart of these questions that tells of the immense weight that we bear when providing care for a loved one. Those who care for others give themselves in love to absorb the burdens of those in pain and distress. That is the cost of bearing one another’s burdens. We pray for strength to carry on and intercede for those in need.

These questions can also pose to the heart something of a distraction, though, when the eyes of the heart wander from the real needs of the current moment to the unrealized fears of another day. God alone knows what tomorrow will bring.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34).

All we ever have is the very present day unfolding all around us. Someone once told me that God would rather us not borrow distress from the future. We ought to look instead within any day we’re given for the manifold ways our loving God is tending our needs, walking with us wherever we may be, always carrying us, lighting our paths, cherishing our hearts, crying with us.

Think back to a day in your life when you questioned how you would have strength to make it through. How did you endure? Where was God present then in ways that you may not have noticed but now after the passing of time see so easily? Looking back, where was grace present to you?

Whatever the future may hold for us and our loved one’s, the lyrics of the psalmist in this morning’s office reading of Psalm 25 remind us of where we derive strength for each day.

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
my God, I put my trust in you; …

“Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
in you have I trusted all the day long.” (Ps. 25:1a, 4)

There is no place where God is not already present. God beholds the depths of each day. But Jesus bids us not to worry about tomorrow. God is our strength today and tomorrow. God is with us in every joy and hardship alike, giving us strength.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Peter