My friend’s husband slipped during a vacation and injured his back. Instead of getting better, the pain grew worse. After numerous doctors’ visits and tests, he heard the news no one wants to hear. Cancer. Of the bones. And he needed back surgery.

The surgery left this formerly active husband and father with a back brace and a cane. His wife struggled with responsibilities he’d previously carried with ease. Sometimes the loss of the life they’d taken for granted and the frustration over lack of youthful strength boiled over.

One such day, she fumed to herself and her husband as she hurled boxes that contained a lifetime of accumulated junk and memories into the dumpster at the local junk yard. “Why didn’t we prepare for old age before it was so hard?”

In her rant, her keys sailed with her belongings into the huge dumpster. Her frustration turned to desperation—and then to God. “Lord, forgive me for complaining. Please have mercy and rescue my keys!”

Halfway down, the keys dangled from protruding trash. She asked two burly men, “Please, would you crawl in and rescue my keys?”

One man fished out a long pole with an attached magnet and snagged the keys. “No problem.”

Has weakness, frustration, or lack of planning dropped you in the middle of a mess? We can’t adequately predict or prepare for some things. But the One who knows our future has promised:

Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46:4 NIV)

Lord Jesus, please sustain me in weakness, rescue me in my stumbles, and carry me when I’m too weak to walk.

Debbie Wilson

Little Women Big God

Debbie W. Wilson—author, Bible teacher, and life coach—helps people, especially overachievers, give themselves a break and live in God’s grace so they can enjoy fruitful and satisfying lives. Her newest book, Little Faith, Big God (Leafwood Publishers) releases February 2020. Share her journey to refreshing faith at debbieWwilson.com.