Lord, We've Been Through the Wringer!

This week in my time with the Lord, I wrote in my prayer journal. I wrote, “Lord, we’ve been through the wringer.” As soon as I wrote those words, a forty-year-old memory surfaced. Those words took me straight back to a simpler time on the farm with Grandma. A time when biscuits baked from scratch in the oven and the police scanner was our only social media.

When my sister Beth and I were kids, we spent several weeks every summer at Grandma Bower’s farm. Grandma had an enclosed porch that housed the deep freezer, cabinets with her canning jars and pressure cooker, and a Maytag wringer washing machine. These weeks on the farm were the best summer memories, especially wash day.

My sister and I would argue over who was going to feed the wet clothes through the wringer first. Being the oldest, I suggested I go first. 😊 After the clothes went through the wringer a few times, we’d hang the clothes on the clothesline, by the cow pasture and the outhouse.

I still remember how you had to push to get the soaking clothes through the wringers and how they came out on the other side flattened, wrung of every drop. That’s the only way I can describe this current season of life.

When You've Been Through the Wringer

Each of us will experience times when we feel utterly exhausted, worn out by hits from all sides, and at our wit’s end. I get it!

Between my husband’s family and mine, five of our six parents were hospitalized within the past three months. Suddenly, both my folks need care. The tension of parenting young adults and now being a full-time caregiver to two parents is stretching me thin. Hence my prayer, “Lord, we’ve been through the wringer.”  

We can take solace in the words of Paul:

“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV)

Wisdom From My Counselor

My counselor reminded me to be honest about my feelings and to get them out. Admit to God, a friend, and/or a journal all the emotions I am feeling. Admit my sadness, anger, grief, frustration, and disappointment.

I think this is the very reason I cling to Psalms in hard times. David, the man God named, “The Man After God’s Own Heart,” never hides his true feelings. David is honest before God. David wrote:

“They were at their wit’s end. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper.” (Psalm 107:28-29 NIV)

David acknowledges we will experience hard things; we have to walk through them. He does not hide his feelings, nor does he hide the reminder that God is always with us in the storm and in the valleys.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” (Psalm 23:4 NIV)

The prophet Isaiah lived 150-200 years after David. David knew the valley, but Isaiah goes further and names what God says to while we’re in it:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (Isaiah 43:1-3 NIV)

Friend, whatever wringer you’re in today, you are not alone in it. God is not caught off guard by your exhaustion, and He is not frightened by your raw, honest emotions. He can handle all your burdens. Take it to Him, in your journal, prayers, or in a phone call with a trusted friend. The season is hard. But He with you in it.

(((Hugs))) & Hope,

April