I love meeting with friends who share the common bond of both Christ and raising children with neuro-psych challenges. We understand the question we ask one another by rote must be answered on a different scale than most. My friend replied, “Death by a thousand paper cuts.” Again we laugh.
My beautiful friend is raising two out of three children with neuro-psych differences in a dizzying dance with interventionists, medical bills, and stormy seas at home. For us, when our children were teens their brain chemistry challenges presented constant battles with emotional stability, mood lability, accountability and my ability to juggle calls from school!
Even though my friend has many needs, she is not one I would ever call “needy”. She is not the kind of friend that causes the recipient of a text, phone call, or request for a meeting to cringe. The opposite is true and can be true for you as well in spite of the intensity of the chaos you manage daily.
One who is needy presents like a tornado of crisis, sucking into its vortex anything or anyone it nears. We all have had seasons where we were those tornados, and I thank God for beloveds in my life who helped me stop spinning. But having intense needs does not create the twister. The whirlwind results from not knowing the primary place to take the traumas, the pain, the complexities and even the joys of everyday life.
I gained unfettered access to my most cherished Confidant during the hardest seasons of my life by locking myself in the downstairs bathroom at five o’clock every morning. By the time I talked with others, I had already spilled much pain in prayer and received deep comfort. The challenges may have remained, but the more I could leave with God, the less tumultuous current my life created for others, in spite of my needs.
My friend does likewise, connecting with God on a level of abiding that sustains her in every situation. Her wisdom shines from her countenance, a glow that she refreshes daily positioned before the Throne of God, far above all principalities and powers, above everything driving the assault against her inner peace.
Still waters are a joy to visit.
And I can’t wait until we get to meet again.