Hold Me for Eternity?

Jun 10, 20233 min read

Updated: Feb 3, 2024

Today was hard. Brutal at times. It started well, but I was working alone and needed to get in the Salt Marsh to run some water line under the dock I am building, so I put my muck boots on, and just did it. It was going well, and I was able to stand on the mass of rotting reeds to work. But suddenly, everything gave way, and I instantly sunk in the mud, past my knees and half-way up my thighs. As I tried to lift one leg, the other sank deeper. I was in real trouble! Finally, I managed to crawl out of the muck on my hands and knees and make my way to the safety of shore. But getting out of the marsh, up the ladder, and up the hill to the house took absolutely all my reserves.

After rinsing off, I removed my boots, and stumbled to the bench where my shoes were, but by that point I was spent. Absolutely done. So I just sat there, head down, in a stupor.

For ten minutes-- while my shoes lay at my feet, untouched. It was all I could do.

Eventually I made my way to a gas station for an energy drink, had a fatigue breakdown on the phone with a friend, and then just sat in the car while built up energy again to go inside. I started telling God how hard it was. How unbearably tired I was, etc. All the complaints, you know the drill...

In response, God quoted Philippians 4:13 (in the 1611 King James Version) to me:

"I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me."

This is a curious choice of modifier. I would have said, "I can do all things through Christ, WHO strengtheneth me." But no, it doesn't say WHO, it says WHICH... So what is it according to this verse, that strengthens me?

Doing all the things. All the hard things.

That process-- doing all the hard things-- strengthens me. And I can DO these hard things through Christ Jesus, who gives me strength.

Later, as I sat in my car sipping my delicious Caffeine, God brought to mind an old Dennis Jernigan song "If I Could Just Sit With You Awhile." The Chorus goes like this:

"If I could just sit with you awhile

If you could just hold me

Nothing could touch me

Though I'm wounded, though I die

If I could just sit with you while

I need you to hold me

Moment by moment

'Til forever passes by."

I knew this song. It was written for a friend of his that was dying of cancer. Then God showed me an old man, sitting alone on a park bench, watching a sunset over the water. I had always loved this song, but now, for the first time, I understood it.

The old man is dying. He has no strength left. The cancer has taken it. All he has left is the energy to just sit there, watch the sunset, and pray. And ask God to come sit with him.

And hold him.