What to say when you don’t know what to say?

Couple of years ago, I was going through a very difficult time. On many levels challenges which I had to face were bigger than my ability to cope with them or at least I felt like that. One of the songs which I listened to over and over again back then was: Josh Wilson: Carry Me.

I found myself connected with the words someone was able to express in that song: God is all I’ve got. What I realized that on my own, I am not able to face any difficulties and that God always shows his presence through people who care about me. Only because of a strong support and power of friendships I was able to get out of the “sinking sands to God’s solid grounds” as the lyrics of the song say.

I have written many posts for this blog since last month. No, you could not read any of them, because they all stayed in my mind, I did not feel like writing them down. The events of the past few weeks, namely development of the pandemic around the world and here, in Australia, overtook my thoughts and made me not able to verbalise what I wanted to say. Or, let’s say – disturbed my thinking. How not to be disturbed? We are all in these difficult circumstances, and the implications of the Covid-19 on our life are simply devastating on many levels. Fear, anxieties, losses: these are only few words which describe where many of us are at right now.

The other day I was sitting on my verandah in a sunny day, having a cuppa and enjoying the sun, counting my blessings and thinking: what do I say to those who are really going through the toughest times? I could not find any good words of consolation or empathy. The common sayings: “Everything is going to be OK” and “After the storm always comes the sunshine” do not convince me and I think that even many of us want to hear them as a “band aid” for temporary relief of stress, we also do not accept them easily in the middle of the life storms. One of the hardest things in life is to be in the “ sinking sands” or in the middle of the storm and allow God to lead us by hand while we think that He is absent. I am not very good at abandonment and surrender prayer yet, but I know that HIS GRACE IS ENOUGH to lead me into the places of safety. I know that HIS GRACE is shown to me through other people as much as I can be sign of HIS GRACE to others.

I do pray that each one of you, reading these words, will feel God’s presence more than ever and will be of a help to those who need it the most right now and the months to come.

With a virtual hug and a song to lift your spirit,

Sr Grace