Each day brings with it new challenges and struggles. It is easy to get overwhelmed, anxious and exhausted just thinking of how to cope. Why does it have to be so hard at times? A friend told me recently she didn’t know that in her retirement she would deal with so much.

The world is much different than it was a couple of years ago. Some things are better, and some things are worse. What do we do when we are heavily laden? How might we reach out to unburden ourselves and make sense of matters? Several of my very dear friends are dealing with their parents suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Another friend is dealing with her daughter mutilating healthy breasts and body in her effort to identify as a male. These are heavy hearts coping with unexpected and overwhelming challenges. It’s hard to know how we can help.

Scripture helps remind us that there will be storms like the disciples on the sea of Galilee. Many of us may never know what it feels like out on the water, with the wind and waves so violent that we fear for our lives. However, we can all identify with storms within our lives involving temperamental weather patterns of humankind. It’s dark and stormy, and what to do next evades us. We can feel alone, distant from God’s loving presence, or that our prayers are ineffective. Relief fails to appear; peace eludes; we are drowning. What is needed is something tangible, someone I can see and hear and talk to, and this is where friends come in.

Our little faith-sharing group has been meeting regularly for over seventeen years. We have been there to listen, pray for, encourage, cry, and laugh with one another. We are a simple text away from one another in an emergency prayer request. We can’t solve all the problems that come our way, but we are there for each other. God, in one way or another, collected us together, knowing we all had something the others needed. We have been shoulders to cry on, mourners at funerals, and support in the storms that found us.

 The story of the starfish comes to mind. As a man walked along the seashore in the early morning, the beach was filled with starfish as the tide receded. He could see a young boy busily tossing things into the water further up the coast. As he got closer, he asked the boy what he was doing. The boy replied that he was throwing the starfish back into the ocean so they could live. The sun would eventually kill them if they remained outside the water. The man laughed and said there was no way he could make a difference, as there were too many starfish. The boy bent over, picked up another starfish, and tossed it into the water, saying, I made a difference for that one.

We can look at all the problems that lie before us daily. We can hear and read about the global issues at stake, which can be crushing. We can see all these things as too big for me to make any difference, so why bother? Or we can be like that little boy and begin to make a difference for the one right in front of us. So, what does that look like?

1-We can pray for each other and say we are doing so, asking for grace and blessings. Continue praying.

2-We can take time to listen without assuming we need to solve anything and accompany them in that moment. Our presence is often the tangible, reassuring presence of God’s love.

3-Check back with them from time to time. Remind them of your prayers and presence.

This is something everyone can do. One person at a time, right in front of you, makes a significant difference. In loving the person in front of us who needs compassion, we are, in turn, loving God, who needs nothing from us.

Christ calls us out into the storm because he calls us to himself. Do we sink or stand? Keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus is vital. Distractions will attempt to shift our eyes from Jesus. Resist! He is there and will calm the storms both within and without; in his time and in his way.

Trust Him.