Page 5 - VABC Newsletter 2019 Holy Week

VABC NEWSLETTER PAGE 5
Wednesday, April 17th

#WaitWithMe - Mark 14:32-34 NRSV

In Jesus’ darkest hours, he called three disciples to wait with him while he prayed.
Although they failed to stay awake, they had willing spirits. Today, let’s celebrate
the people who wait with us when we feel low or at a crossroads. Use hashtag

#WaitWithMe to share!

Wait With Me

You cannot take away my pain. You cannot enter into the secret places of my heart or my mind to
understand what is going on with me. I know I frustrate you when I block your attempts to do so. When I
tell you, I can’t talk about it; I sense your helplessness. When I reject your attempts to help me, you take it
personally; retreat into yourself and into self-pity. I wish I could make you understand that this is not about
you. It is about me. I know it is affecting you, but it is not about you. I wish I could say without hurting you
that you cannot fix everything. I wish I had the words to tell you that there are some things that I have to
work out in the privacy of my own heart, mind, and soul. The wall that you encounter was not erected to
just keep you out but everyone out. I have a difficult time even letting God in. I am not certain I do.

I am hurting. But I have learned not to burden others with my pain. Yes, pride is part of it; but not all of it.
Some of it came from being disappointed and betrayed by persons who I gave access to my innermost
thoughts and feelings.

Please do not get angry and frustrated when I am unable to tell you what is going on with me. I cannot
explain what I do not fully understand. This is what makes my situation so frustrating. I don’t know. I don’t
know.

I am sorry for the times my emotions overrule my sensibilities and I lash out at you. I wonder if it is my way
of letting you feel my pain. I hope not.

What I really need from you is so hard to say and maybe too much to ask of you. What I really need from
you, is for you to wait with me. Even though I appear willing to go it alone; even though I ask for space; give
me my space but still wait with me.

Stay close enough so when I am able to let you into that secret space that houses my pain and confusion, you
will be able to do so. As you wait please resist the temptation to analyze or to make it go away. To wait with
me you must realize that there are no simple answers to my struggles. They cannot be solved by a word of
knowledge, quoting a scripture or a psychological insight from you. To wait with me… I cannot explain; but
wait with me!
Many thanks to Howard University School of Divinity
Dr. Bernard L. Richardson, Dean of Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel
and Associate Professor Pastoral Care and Counseling
for allowing us to share this powerful message with our readers.