He Shared A Gem

During Covid, because of a combination of things, I experienced burnout. Shane and Vanessa were always home and family to me, but during this time when my heart, thoughts, and strength failed, they were a place of safety.

One day they invited me over and we spent the day together. We talked about our assignments and the toll they sometimes take on us. Shane shared a gem he’d found to help him cope with the stresses of his assignment. He said that the Israelites would wage righteous war often. They weren’t soldiers; they were farmers who were taught by Jehovah to be peaceable. So it must have been so traumatizing for them to hurt and kill others. Still, the Bible doesn’t mention them being scarred from those experiences. Shane said he believed that Jehovah found a way to block those thoughts from their minds as soon as the battles were over. He said this helped him with his assignment a lot. When things got hard during his “battles”, he prayed that Jehovah helped him to stay joyful and positive; to not be scarred by the fight.

Shane’s gem has been such a comfort when painful, traumatizing events in this old system hurt us and our loved ones. We take comfort that Jehovah will soon make it so that these things “will not be called to mind, nor will they come up into the heart”. But it’s encouraging to think that even now Jehovah helps block some things from our hearts in order for us to have the strength to serve him fully.

Jehovah used Shane to help so many continue to fight their battles with their eyes on Jehovah. We look forward to seeing him again in a world in which we’d have all “beat our swords into plowshares”, in every way.