By Kerry Hasenbalg
“Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.” –Galatians 6:2
Rogo is what everyone calls him. I’m not sure I have even heard his real name. He’s a member of the crew that handles the set-up and teardown of the concert equipment for Steven Curtis Chapman while on tour. When Rogo saw me for the first time since the loss of our daughter, he said, “I have been praying for you; we have all been praying for you since we heard.” I could sense his sincerity. As a result, I wanted him to know how much that meant to me. God had been showing me that it has been the prayers of the saints that have kept Scott and me from even greater pain and long-term harm to our souls and bodies. However, I could not find the words to adequately express how I knew this to be true. He felt just as I did, wanting to express in words how prayer in suffering is far more than just words; it has real power.
God had ministered to me in those moments when I had felt a sense of joy and a certain “break” from the great pain that my rest came because my Christian brothers and sisters were holding me up in prayer and “bearing our burdens.” I shared this with him as I had with a few others, but because I do not understand this as more than a spiritual mystery, I was not sure I was making sense. There was this profound mystery that was bringing life to my family and me, though I could not understand it, let alone adequately share it, with this prayerful man standing before me. I knew my heart was crying out, “Please don’t stop praying for us—we still need your prayers.” I couldn’t tell him why it was so important, but I knew it was. I did say something about how the biblical idea of “bearing one another’s burdens” is not just a shallow words to me, but they are life-giving ones, yet still I came up terribly short of the gratitude I wanted to express. But then Rogo responded by saying, “I just got this picture in my head of a person lying on a bed of nails and not getting hurt.” And there it was… the human picture of the heavenly reality!
My mouth fell open as pictures and scriptures ran through my mind…Jesus on the Cross being pierced by the nails in his hands and feet…pierced for our transgressions…hanging alone… The church as the Body of Christ—the law of Christ… a human body lying on a bed of nails with the pressure of the many nails being evenly distributed and not one part being pierced… One body but many members each doing its part… each bearing its weight so that no one part is pierced…
Poor Rogo! All he saw or heard was a silent me with a perplexed look in my eyes and my mouth agape. He said, “Do you know what I mean? Does that make any sense to you?” And I responded, “Make any sense? It is the great mystery! What a beautiful earthly picture of a heavenly reality!” Oh how powerful the Lover of my aching soul had spoken to me through this precious gentle man! Instead of one member being mortally pierced by one huge nail, the pressure of many smaller nails evenly distributed through prayer to many members allows the body to rest peacefully on its bed of nails.
Thank you Lord! Thank you Rogo! Thank you to all who have prayed for us!
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