An Unneeded Friend

She slithered with grace

Embracing my shoulders,

And whispered sweet comforts

Into my ears.

Her words were so smooth

Like honey melted,

Helping me focus

On thoughts of despair.

“If only you, dear,

Did not have to go through

This trial unlike

Some other one’s pain.

This sorrow is more

Than you should have carried.

If only life

Would have gone your way.”

This friendship she brings

Bears heavy burdens.

Envy and anger

Weigh down the load.

But Jesus will carry

These burdens for me.

To walk with Him

Is to release her hold.

If you are weary

Of Self-pity’s friendship,

Let her go

To take Jesus’ hand.

His yoke is easy

For He walks beside us;

Drying our tears,

Lifting our heads.

He has a weaving,

Only He sees the beauty,

That requires the dark threads

As He makes it complete.

Deftly, He uses

Each trial for our good;

For He is our True Friend.

Lean into His peace.

Grief and self-pity are not the same thing. Grieving is necessary when we lose those we love. It is a God-given emotion that He experienced and knows how to help us through.

Grief can give way to self-pity, however, when we refuse to enter into someone else’s joy simply because we do not have what they do, or when we view some past event with sadness at what should have been. Self-pity is not our friend. She weighs us down with unnecessary baggage.

I lost my father when I was six years old. It was not until I was in my 30’s that God showed me the way I had been blaming my life’s circumstances on the fact that I did not have my father in my life to give direction and help. But God had been my Heavenly Father, providing, directing, guiding, intervening. When He opened my eyes to that fact, it changed the way I had viewed my whole life. It brought me to gratitude, rather than loss. That is what Jesus does for every grief. He replaces despair with His presence, with His peace, and with His sufficient grace.

As I read Psalm 84:11–For the LORD God is a sun and shield:the LORD will give grace and glory:no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.— I paused on the words, “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

What He does not give, He fills with Himself. He withholds no good thing from us.

He.

Is.

Enough.

To live that out, we must let go of self-pity.

Have a blessed day on purpose!

Erica B.