the dumping grounds

Tacos and talk.  A friend invited me over for lunch yesterday just because I was about to implode from emotional overload.  By the time I left she had to get ice bags for her ears.  She listened to all of it –everything weighing on me that seemed too much to think about all by myself.  She’s a gift giver, but that could possibly be the nicest thing she has ever done for me.

We can’t carry it all by ourselves.   

1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 

Dump it. 

My pastor husband has been opening the Bible every Sunday morning and talking to us about grace.  How God has chosen to pour out his grace on people –through people.  How God reveals who he is to a person –through another person. 

Surely God is the greatest listener, if he invites us to bring all that anxiety and weariness and dump it right on him.  I certainly do that all day long.  Prayers over morning cereal.  Prayers in the car.  Prayers over mounds of laundry.  Prayers by the bed. 

But sometimes God sends human ears.  A real person who gets teary with you in one moment and laughs with you in the next.  A real person who speaks the grace of God and puts all that anxiety into perspective.  A real person who listens –and then offers to help with the chores that seem too much.  A real person who puts a taco salad in front of you when you come and clears the dishes for you when you leave. 

Thank God for friends who open up their hearts wide and invite the dumping.