God’s Help When We Are Disabled

I’ve been on a roller coaster of thoughts and emotions throughout this winter storm.  When the storm hit us with extensive tree damage, I was worried about what we would do. Life has been extra challenging for us because Jared’s back has been badly hurt. He has been disable and has extremely limited capabilities of simple general life things, like putting on socks, shoes, walking, driving etc. The only position he can find some comfort, is to lay on his back.  It is only by God’s grace he has been able to have this little bit of comfort.  And it is only by God’s grace he is slowly improving. Now he can walk and drive, but at this point in his healing, he was still extremely weak and sensitive. The doctor specifically told him to have no part in the tree clean-up. 

Thankfully, the city said they were sending a commercial truck to pick up broken limbs on the side of the road. This would be a huge help to everyone in town.  I was so thankful for this free service because of Jared’s hurt back. The only thing we were tasked to do, was pull all broken limbs to the edge of the road.  It seems simple, but we had such extensive damage on our property, that it was no small task.

When it was time to clean up the tree debris, God gave Jared the idea to use the truck to pull branches towards the road, just as the city instructed. And even more excitingly God sent our friends to help! I was absolutely amazed by this! I prayed for help from our small group and prayed for Jared to accept that help….and God answered!! Just as I was opening up my phone to reach out for hired help, my friend’s text message pops-in! Her and her husband were looking for people to help.  I know that Jared doesn’t want to be a bother to anyone, so I understood that he was reluctant to accept help from this couple from our small group. But God softened his heart to this idea, and it happened!  And then hours later, more of the small group with all their kids showed up by complete surprise.  We had so many hands and feet, that we were able to help our neighbor to get her tree limbs to the edge of the road as well.  My heart felt extra-filled with joy about what God did!  

I was also excited to hear that Jared used this selfless act of our small group, as a way to witness to our neighbor. Although our small group is a complete stranger to our neighbor, they had such a joy in helping her because of their love for Jesus. I’m praying for this to be a light!

Throughout the week, my mountain top feelings wore off.  Although the city said they were sending a truck to clean-up limbs on the side of the road, the notice also said that it’s not guaranteed they will be able to pick up everyone’s.  There was a deadline for how long this free service would be offered. According to the city’s website, we seemed to be toward the end of their stops, so in our logical opinion, it didn’t seem there would be time to reach our house.  We both grew pessimistic and started planning to rent a truck to haul everything.  I felt upset about this because getting this trailer meant hard labor on Jared’s back and more time spent to clean-up from this storm. It also meant less time resting physically and spiritually, which is the way God has been leading Jared, to be more still.  It was also making me feel so behind on my own work. My goal this year is to try and be more consistent with the blog, free resources, and Youtube, and this wasn’t helping.

During this time of doubt I felt upset and confused with God and thought to myself, “Why God, did you allow this storm? If you’re leading Jared to rest, why did you send this storm that is causing us so much extra work?” With this honest prayer to God, He then gave me faith to have hope. My prayer of expressing my doubt and upset, led to God giving me the faith to pray for the city to extend their assistance, of the free clean-up service…and it happened! I had hope again that the truck would come! I prayed they would come and they did! God sent the extra help that we needed.  And boy was it a load off!!

First, they took one load (about half of what we had). After, they came knocking at our door saying they needed us to move some piles of limbs away from the trees.  They needed to be placed in an area that was more open, so their equipment could pick up the piles.  As I ran out to do this they told me they would be back in a few hours.  I continued to feel so hopeful!

As I was out moving the branches, a neighbor drove by and shared with me, that they told her they would not stop at our street a second time. I have no idea why they disclosed to her completely different information. 

They didn’t come back that day, as they said they would. In my mind I was tempted to be pessimistic again, but in my heart I wasn’t discouraged that they didn’t come back. I refused to entertain any negative thoughts. Instead, I chose to be extremely thankful that they took half of what we had. We both knew God had already helped us tremendously. 

But then the next morning, on a Saturday…they did come back!!

I know this is absolutely God’s help. One week later someone mentioned that the city did not get their broken trees branches that they put out. They mentioned that they lived right by our house, but the truck passed by their entire neighborhood.  I truly believe we had the help we needed because we prayed for it.