He won’t lead us where He won’t go…

By Cammie Easley, LPC, MHSP-S, Director of Child & Adolescent Services

Recently, I listened to a man sharing about his last years with his wife as she fought a battle against cancer. He described cherishing each day with her up until the end of her life. His words about his wife were all seasoned with warmth, appreciation, respect and genuine love. However, as he spoke, one word in particular struck me in a poignant way.

This word was the tiny little pronoun “we.”

All throughout his story he stated, “We fought against cancer,” “hand in hand We faced death,” and “We journeyed together until she passed into eternity.”

One little word, and yet, it changed the entire tone of his story. And, for many of us, I think that one little word can change the tone of our own stories as well.

After counseling others for a decade now, and walking through my own story, I believe one of the hardest aspects of walking through suffering of any kind is the sense of isolation it brings. Whether one is alone in one’s physical, emotional, spiritual, or relational pain, the seeming “aloneness” of the situation is possibly harder to bear than the pain itself. There is a sense of frustration and loneliness that one cannot escape from one’s pain, pass it off to another for a day, outrun it, numb it, or share pieces of one’s burden physically with another. It is when one feels stuck in the pain, trapped in it, and alone in it that we are often tempted beyond grief to despair.

But then…..

There is a man with no cancer of his own standing in front of me saying, “We battled against it.”

A man without that same physical experience in his own body willingly entering into the experience of the one in pain.

A man who is full of life stating, “We stared death in the face.”

That simple word, “We,” and something inside of us is stilled. Just hearing the word “we” in the midst of our pain sets some of our own anxiety at bay. Because you see, “we” is a word of hope to a person drowning in desperation.

While this man’s testimony is so incredibly powerful, I know it cannot eradicate the feelings of aloneness one faces throughout life. Because, ultimately, there came a time when this man had to let go of his wife’s hand as she entered into eternity.

And yet, in the face of this aloneness, the Spirit of the Lord reminds us that…. She was certainly not alone.

Another hand that had held her hand throughout all of her life, held fiercely to hers as she passed through death and He escorted her, hand in hand, into eternity.

This man never tasted sin, and yet willingly took on the punishment for sin to save each of us.

This man, though the source of life itself, entered death to win us back to life.

This man, though surrounded by the joys of Heaven, became a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief to bestow on us a crown of gladness.

This man, whose hands shaped the earth, suffered piercing with nails on the Cross that those hands might FIRMLY grasp ours and lead us through each day of life on this earth and into eternity.

Those hands proclaim forever that we are a “We.”

No sickness, no pain, no sin, no hurt, no famine, no danger, no sword, no suffering, no brokenness will ever separate our hands from His. What we go through, He goes through. Where we walk, He’s already walked. What we face, He’s already defeated.

So, to every person reading, remember… You are NEVER alone. You are a “We” forever with Your Shepherd King and your hand is kept safe in His forever.

If you find yourself in a season of suffering or feeling alone, do not hesitate to reach out. You are NOT alone and there are others who want to remind you of this truth and journey with you through your season of difficulty.

Meet Cammie Easley, LPC-MHSP, Director of Child & Adolescent Services!

Cammie graduated with her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in May of 2014 from Denver Seminary in Denver, CO.

Throughout her career as a counselor, Cammie has been passionate about helping individuals of all ages overcome anxiety and depression, heal from past traumas, process their own grief, and develop into the healthy and whole people that God designed them to be.

She believes firmly that seasons of hardship are God’s tool which He uses to make us more like Himself and to reveal Himself to us in ways that we would not otherwise come to intimately know. One of her greatest joys in counseling is helping individuals figure out how they can heal in a holistic way that incorporates their body, mind, and spirit.