God is With YOU

I hadn’t expected to, but I ended up celebrating Easter two days before Good Friday with my counsellor over a video call session. During this session, I wanted to reflect on the progress I’ve been making over the last several months- the healing I’ve been seeing, the things I’ve been learning, the heaviness that has been starting to lift. Counselling and life have been hard work. I needed a break and needed to stop, breathe, and take notice of these positive steps.

After reflecting for a while, my counsellor got me to do a holding exercise. I put one hand on my side and the other just below my shoulder. I held myself and thought about how my body has carried me through so much. So much pain, so many ups and downs, so many emotions. I started to cry. It has been an incredibly difficult year.

My counsellor realized that this counselling session was in accord with Easter. We were sitting and holding the celebration and recognition of my healing along with my pain and suffering. During Easter, we observe and hold both death and life: the suffering, crucifixion, and death of Christ along with the resurrection of our Lord and the gift of our salvation.

I continued to cry, and my counsellor teared up. We prayed in praise to God and we prayed for each other. We couldn’t gather in our church buildings this Easter, but the Holy Spirit was with my counsellor and me that session, and it was a deeply meaningful journey through Easter that we took together. I am so thankful.

The day after that counselling session, I was reminded again that God is with me as I listened to Kate Bowler’s podcast episode, “The Emergency Button.” In this episode, Beth Moore asserts that God is with each one of us. I have heard many times that God is with us, but during this time of isolation, I needed to hear again that we are not isolated from God. Beth says:

Have we been forgotten?... Does God know that we’re here?... it’s not until we are at times on our own with God that we begin to get a clue that He really is with us. It’s easy to think… that He’s with someone else, so I need to be with them, be it my spiritual director, my pastor, my Bible study teacher… I’m not selling aloneness… but it is extremely important to know, to sit before God and know, without anyone else in sight, I matter, you matter, all by yourself, you matter… to [God].

God is with me. God is with you. I pray that you will know this. I pray that you will feel and know that through this time and at all times, God is with you.

Kristen