Shelter From Stormy Blasts

Live on American Family Radio, this is Hope for the Caregiver.

I am Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. 65 million Americans right now are serving as a caregiver.

Are you one of them? How are you doing? What's going on with you? Caregivers are often ignored.

We put our lives on hold to take care of someone else thinking that we can go back and resume it if they get better or if they get worse, and it'll be waiting for us. And I say, no, it will not. We're going to have to learn to live in the midst of this. Zephaniah said that, the Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He's not trying to just get you through this, and then he'll reveal himself. He's going to reveal himself right now, right here, right today, because that's the kind of God we serve. He is the God.

He is the only God. He is involved intimately in all of our travails. And sometimes it doesn't feel that way for us as caregivers. And we cry out in despair. We get discouraged. We get fearful. We get angry. We get all types of turmoil just consuming our soul as we try to care for someone who lives with severe issues. How do we withstand that?

How do we stay strong and healthy while taking care of someone who is not? That's what this show is all about. And we are grateful that you're here. We also want to welcome all of our affiliates across the country. American Family Radio, of course, the Host of the Show, Truth Network, His Radio, and other stations now are carrying the show, and we're very grateful to have them.

And we are grateful to have you if you want to be a part of the show. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840.

Hopeforthecaregiver.com if you want to send us a message. All right, we start off usually with a scripture and a hymn that describes what we're going to discuss today. But let me set the ground rules. If you have something that is pressing, that is not necessarily related to this theme, then you are certainly welcome to call and we'll deal with it as best as we can.

888-589-8840. But I'm going to step over to the caregiver keyboard and do our musical trivia. So if you know this hymn, because we're going to discuss this hymn. If you know this hymn, all right, I've stepped over to the caregiver keyboard here.

Then give us a call here. But this is a hymn, this is one of my favorite hymns of all times. And I remember the text of this during great seasons of turmoil and trouble because it's so well done. Isaac Watts wrote it.

I'll give you that hint here. Do you know that hymn? I just love the first slide. But if you know this hymn, 888-589-8840, and I will give you the hint that Isaac Watts, who is often called the Godfather of English hymnody, wrote that. Now you may know some of his other hymns as well. One of them was, one of the most beautiful hymns I think ever written, When I survey the wondrous cross. And then he wrote another hymn that you might know, Joy to the World.

My father loves this story. There was a Presbyterian minister named James Caldwell. My dad's a Presbyterian minister. And James Caldwell during the Revolutionary War went through some tough things. And there were shots fired into his home and his wife was killed.

And I believe his wife, the house was later even burned down. And he became a chaplain to the military, to the Revolutionary War Army, to the Continental Army. And he was a chaplain to a unit, I believe in either New Jersey or Rhode Island.

And there was at one point, his men ran out of packing paper, wadding paper for their muskets. Well Isaac Watts was again this prolific hymn writer. And he had, most of the hymnals that were done there, Benjamin Franklin I think actually printed a lot of these things, were written by Isaac Watts and that was the hymnal that was used in a lot of these churches there in the New England area. And so when his men ran out of wadding paper, Reverend Caldwell went into the local church there, ran in there, came out with a hymnal and held it up to use the pages for wadding paper. And he yelled out to his men, give them Watts boys, give them Watts. And I thought that was just such a great story of faith and of resolve and of fighting back against tyranny and using the hymnals to help do that.

I thought that was just a great story of that and what an amazing guy. Alright here's a scripture that I want to get into with Psalm 77 starting at verse 4. Now see if this describes you as a family caregiver. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of long ago.

I will remember my song in the night, I will meditate with my heart and my spirit ponders. Will the Lord reject forever? Has his favor ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever?

Has God forgotten to be gracious or has he in his anger withdrawn his compassion? Then I said, it is my grief that the right hand of the most high has changed. Does that sound like you?

Now I'm not going to read the last part of it just yet. I want to just stop for a moment. Does that sound like you as a caregiver? Have you ever felt that way that you just say to yourself, will the Lord reject forever and will he never be favorable again? When you're taking care of someone who is suffering, who is declining right in front of your eyes, that's a prayer that comes out. That's a thought that comes out.

You just cry out, will he reject forever? But see I would say to you, I would suggest to you this, if you're even praying that prayer, and a lot of people feel guilty if they pray that prayer. A lot of people feel like, oh, I don't have any faith or my faith is weak. If you're even praying that prayer, it is in itself an act of faith because you're acknowledging that there is a God and you're not that God. You're acknowledging there is a Lord who was able to do things. And in your anguish, crying out in that manner is not a sign of an absence of faith, but rather it is a sign of faith. That there is faith that God is God and he can do something about it. You just don't understand why. And if scripture is going to go to the trouble, the Holy Spirit is going to go to the trouble to breathe into this, to put this in the scriptures, then it's okay for us to feel and to pray this out as a caregiver. It is really okay.

Read the text. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Will the Lord reject forever and will he never be favorable again? Has his favor ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious?

That's the text. And yet how many of us as caregivers have actually prayed that prayer? How many of us have cried that cry?

How many of us have struggled with those types of sentiments and feelings? And there it is right in the text. So for those of you right now who are facing brutal realities, that's your text right there. That's for you. Scripture understands that.

God himself understands this and he put it in there to let you know that it is okay to cry out in that manner. But now there's a part two to this. There's a part two.

And we're going to talk about this when we come back from the break. 888-589-8840. 888-589-8840. This is Peter Rosenberg and this is Hope for the Caregiver. Hope for the caregivers, the conviction, the conviction that we as caregivers can live a calmer, healthier, and dare I say it, a more joyful life. Give them what boys. That's our theme today.

We'll be right back. Hey, this is Peter Rosenberg and in my three and a half decades as a caregiver, I have spent my share of nights in a hospital, sleeping in waiting rooms, on fold out cots, chairs, even the floor. Sometimes on sofas and a few times in the doghouse, but let's don't talk about that. As caregivers, we have to sleep at uncomfortable places, but we don't have to be miserable. We use pillows for MyPillow.com.

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That's MyPillow.com promo code caregiver. This is what we were created for. The saddle of your horses. We got a trail to play. Through the wild, the launder of God's amazing grace. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio.

This is Peter Rose, Murdered. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We're so glad that you're with us. I love that too.

I think Steven Curtis Chapman. Saddle up your horses. I ride every week out here where I live in Montana. I've got several horses that I've got to be riding to keep them in shape. I try to ride sometimes the same day. I did two the other day. I looked at the third one. I said, no, I'm not going to do that today. I think I'm going to wait.

I'll just ride you next week. He seemed relieved. I seemed relieved.

Everybody was okay. We're talking about a hymn that I'm going to go to the phone lines here in just a moment that I picked up for today to discuss the contextual journey of a caregiver in light of this hymn and then also in light of Psalm 77, which I think also captures this particular hymn's answer to that cry that we have. We'll all be there.

We'll all be there at that place. If you're a caregiver long enough, I promise you, you're going to get to that place where you say, I'm so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of long ago.

I will remember my song in the night. I will meditate with my heart and my spirit ponders, will the Lord reject forever? Will he never be favorable again? Has his favor ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever?

Has God forgotten to be gracious or has he in his anger withdrawn his compassion? If you're a caregiver long enough, you're going to get to that place. I promise you, you'll get there. But now there are others who've been there before. That's what this is all about here. It's in scripture. There it is right there in the text saying that very thing that we all cry out.

That is the human condition. But others have come before us who have spoken to that and I'll read what scripture says about it. But our hymn today, I'm over here at the caregiver keyboard, is this one. This hymn answers that cry. Written by Isaac Watts, who is considered the Godfather of English hymnody and an amazing prolific hymn writer. And if you know that hymn, 888-589-8840, if someone gets it before we get to you on the phone line, that's okay. Tell me why that's important to you.

Tell me why that hymn means something to you. 888-589-8840. All right, let's go to Mike in Holland, Michigan. Mike. Hang on just a second, Mike.

There you go. Go ahead, Mike. How are you feeling?

Pretty good this morning. Can you hear me okay? I can, sorry. I had to click it twice there when I went to you. Sorry about that. That's my befuddled brain this morning.

But go ahead. The name of the hymn is Oh God, My Help in Ages Past. Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past.

Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past. Our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. What a great statement to make against the unsettledness, the anguish, the heartache that we feel, we look at and we see and we endure, and that's how we anchor ourselves. Why is this hymn important to you?

How did you know this one, Mike? Why is this hymn important to you? Well, I am a pastor.

I actually, I work as a hospice chaplain. I knew this hymn before that position, but it's one that I cling to even more in that position and I play it a fair amount of time for people that I visit. I often will play music. Often it's over my phone and I'll play hymns and that's one that I'll pick out very often. It's comforting to know that God is our help through all seasons and He is our eternal home.

So it faces our hope in that. You know, Hans Christian Andersen used to say, well, he's dead, so when he was alive he said it, but he said, when words fail, music speaks. And what have you found when playing these hymns in a hospice situation? Just an ability to breathe, a sense of peace and calmness in the room amidst us and within the person and their spirit. What about the folks around them? Do they respond as well? Do they recognize or do they respond? Do they sing along or mutter along or do they just bow their head? What happens?

Each of those things can happen. Their roommates or people around them will often join in and want to be a part of it. And also the staff is often there assisting them, you know, giving the care. And sometimes they know and will sing along with songs or other times they just catch word of some of the lyrics and the promises in the music.

There's something about it. I've been in situations many times where people are not engaged in life but you start playing a familiar hymn and you'll see their lips start to move as they sing it or they'll respond with you. And a dear, dear friend of ours in Nashville was in the hospice and Gracie went over there with him and she just got out the hymnal and just started singing to him. And it was such a beautiful moment. And this was the last week and a half. He just celebrated the anniversary of his death was this last week.

And this was in the last weeks of his life. And she's just singing hymns to him, just going through the hymnal. She did that with her grandmother.

And I've watched this. In fact, when her grandmother was dying, I brought a keyboard into the room and I just sat there and played and Gracie on one side and her sister on the other sang to their grandmother. I mean, and her father was there and we must have sung for several hours just going through the hymnal. And it was it was astonishing.

I watched in ICU when my mother was struggling through her congestive heart failure and she was struggling to breathe. And she had requested that Gracie sing, Breathe on Me, Breath of God. You know that hymn, Mike?

Yeah. Breathe on me, breath of God. Fill me with life anew.

And she sang that in ICU and the nurses stopped and listened as it just rang out down the hall. And the power that is in singing these great hymns of the faith that comes to us, the strength is extraordinary. But I was thinking about this on Psalm 77.

You know, when we asked those questions, you know, I'm struggling. I can't even speak, you know, as God forgot me. And then the psalmist goes and he says, I shall remember the deeds of the Lord. I will certainly remember your wonders of old. And that's where I believe that had to have been part of the inspiration of Isaac Watts.

Oh God, our help in ages past. And when we anchor ourselves that he has brought us through other things there, God has proven himself and we can count them and we can stand on that even in the midst of great sorrow and heartache. And that's why I love these hymns, Mike.

I really do. And I appreciate you getting that. I appreciate the work that you do and pastoring people in a very scary place. And it means a lot to know that somebody in that situation is entrenched in the word of God and these great hymns of the faith. So thank you, Mike. Oh, you're welcome. Thank you for your ministry and how you help the caregivers.

There's not really another radio show like it. So it's very helpful. And I trust God is really using it.

Well, thank you. We, there is nothing like what we do. We're going on offense on the one social issue the world has not co-opted and we're going on offense and the battle is not in the task of caregiving. The battle is in the heart that is just a train wreck. Where is solid footing? The battle is exactly what it says here in Psalm 77 that, you know, I am so troubled that I cannot speak and that we're crying out, you know, has God forgotten to be gracious?

That's where the battle is. And we're going to speak to that issue in the context of caregiving. So thank you again for that, Mike.

And I want to jump to another call here and I appreciate you listening here. This is grace. Of course that is my favorite name, favorite word in the English language. Grace in Ohio. Good morning, Grace.

How are you feeling? Well, we must've lost grace, but that is my favorite word in the English language is the word grace. I want to go back and look at the text of this hymn real quick before we go to the break and Oh God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. Oh God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Be thou our guard while troubles last in our eternal home. Under the shadow of thy throne, thy saints have dwelt secure. Sufficient is thine arm alone and our defense is sure. Can you hang onto that today as a caregiver? Sufficient is his arm alone.

Sufficient is his arm alone and our defense is sure. And in Psalm 77, where we've been reading where the Psalmist is just crying out, you know, has God forgotten to be gracious? And then he says this in Psalm 77 verse 11, I shall remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work and on your deeds with thanksgiving. Your way God is holy. What God is great like our God. You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your strength among the peoples. By your power, you have redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph.

It's extraordinary. The Psalmist starts off just dragging, just into heartache and anchors himself in the eternal truth and in the historical account of all that God has done. Oh God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast in our eternal home.

This is Hope from the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger, 888-589-8840. If that song is meaningful to you, give us a call and tell us why.

888-589-8840. We'll be right back. Jesus, I can take it.

Oh, as him, I know I can't stand. No matter what may come my way, life is in your hands. Welcome back to Hope from the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. I just let that play a little bit because I love listening to my wife sing this song. Extraordinary voice, extraordinary life. I'm sorry, I'm a little bit verklempt about that because she got a piece of news this week that was not what we wanted to hear and we're dealing with some hard realities with her life. You ever get bad news from your doctor? You ever get a piece of news that causes you to kind of sigh deeply? Well, that's what we have this week and we've been working through a lot of this for several months knowing that part of that reality and so we deal with it. And how do we deal with it? A consistent way that Grace and I deal with it is going back to these great hymns of the faith.

Oh God, our help in ages past. This is not our first rodeo in getting a piece of bad news from doctors. And I was telling a friend of mine that called me late last night who also is, well actually I don't think she'd mind me telling you. This was Johnny Erickson taught him and she called me last night and we were talking a little bit and I told her I was going to talk about this hymn this morning and she loves this hymn as well.

She just started just singing it to me over the phone and I cringe when I think about all the times in my life where I've gone out there and frenetically flopped around like a fish out of water in dealing with all the craziness that we've dealt with over these last several decades as I've served as Grace's caregiver and husband and I'm in my 35th year of this and so this is not our first time to experience this sort of thing but at the same time it just kind of kicks you in the gut. We though are trying at this point to stay just focused on today. We're going to just deal with today.

And as I'm doing the show right now I'm looking out and I'm seeing a big old hawk out here in the paddock outside my window and just looking at the beauty around me and dealing with today. At the rate this administration is going, for all I know they could be wrapping this thing up and Jesus could come back next week so who knows. It's getting crazier and crazier out there and if we allow ourselves to get hooked into the crazy all it does is just destroy us. And so we anchor ourselves in these great truths. Oh God our help in ages past our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast in our eternal home. Under the shadow of thy throne thy saints have dwelt secure sufficient is thine arm alone.

Do we find it sufficient? Do you find it sufficient that his arm alone is sufficient today or do we feel like we need to somehow help God out? I'm getting too old and too tired to run off and be spastic about these things and so we're just standing firm and dealing with today as it comes. What did Jesus say? Sufficient is the day you know for the troubles in this day.

Tomorrow will take care of themselves. And that sounds glib and it sounds a little bit patronizing out of context. Jesus never did anything that was glib or patronizing and when you put that in the context of the journey that Gracie and I have had now for she's been hurt for 38 years this year. And in John you remember the scene when Jesus went to the paralytic at the pool and he said he'd been there for 38 years and then scripture reiterated around that he'd been there a long time. Even scripture bits that's a long time.

And if you haven't seen the chosen by the way please do yourself a favor and do this. But they show that scene at the pool and it is so well done. But Gracie's been hurt for 38 years. That's a long time.

Scripture says 38 years is a long time. But in that 38 years we have seen his hand of mercy. We've seen his hand of grace. We've seen his provision.

And we'll see it through this as well. How about you? Are you seeing his hand of mercy? Are you seeing his hand of grace? Is he your shelter from the stormy blast? We've got out here where we live in Montana. Some years ago I helped my father-in-law build these wind breaks. You can get inside them.

They're offset opening on either side and the horses can get in when it gets a little bit gnarly out here and the winds can get pretty rough in the wintertime. And so they get in and they get sheltered from those stormy blasts that come in. And I always think of that when I hear that text. Our shelter from the stormy blast because we have those kinds of things out here. And I look at do we see God's word? Do we see God as that shelter from these things? He's far better than this little shelter my father-in-law and I worked on out here.

Far better than that. Do we see that his arm alone is sufficient? One of the things that separates this show from other shows is that I have not, I don't come at this from a position where I own these thoughts and these concepts. I am a caregiver, not I was a caregiver. I am a caregiver and I do this every single day and this is how I do it. This is what I stand on. This is what I lean on. This is what I cry out to.

And it's not theory to me. I am a caregiver. I are one. And I too get in those places where you, like the psalmist, has his favor ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Been there, done that. Still go there.

Still go there. But then I also step one step further and I say, I shall remember the deeds of the Lord. I will certainly remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your works and with your deeds with thanksgiving. See, you know, it's kind of hard to be miserable when you're filling your time being grateful. I think I may say that again.

It's hard to be miserable when you're filling your time with gratitude. And I go back to the story of Corrie Ten Boon told of her sister. And her sister, there were so many fleas in the hut that all the women were sharing at Ravensbrook at the concentration camp. And her sister Betsy said, we can be thankful for the fleas. And Corrie said, that's just too much.

That's just too much. I can't be thankful for fleas. But the fleas were keeping the guards away from molesting the women. And Betsy was thankful for them. Corrie never forgot that lesson. Betsy died in prison in the concentration camp.

Corrie was released like about a week or so before all the women her age were executed. And she went on to literally change the world with her story. She also went on to take a moment to lead a little girl who was six years old to Jesus.

And that was my wife, Gracie. Hebrews says, remember those who spoke the word of the Lord to you and when appropriate, imitate their faith. And I think that God, you can see God's provision. When you look at it, when you get the perspective of time, you can see God's provision of people in your life who will speak the word of the Lord to you and give you that courage to imitate their faith. Just 11 years after that encounter with Corrie, Gracie had her wreck. And she would need to look back on somebody whose faith was worth imitating.

Who better than Corrie Timbo? Who do you look back on and imitate their faith as you struggle with these things, as you lay in those dark places and cry out to God that says, have you forgotten? Whose faith do you look back on? And I would suggest to you that Psalm 77 is a great place to start. And forgive me for not knowing if David wrote that one or not. But Psalm 77 is a great place to start because here's someone who has cried out to God.

Here's someone who has struggled mightily. Has he forgotten to be gracious? Have you ever asked that question? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has his favor ceased forever? Or has he in his anger withdrawn his compassion? Lord, do you not even feel sorry?

Are you just so angry you don't even feel sorry for me? This is what the Psalmist is saying. But then the Psalmist goes on to say, I shall remember the deeds of the Lord. Oh God, our help in ages past. That's our hymn today.

Is that where you are? Is that where you struggle right now? I get it. That's what makes this show different from other shows. It's because I'm not going to tell you what you should do or don't do. This is what the text says.

This is what scripture says. And this is what I say to myself. I've often said that we ought to have a disclaimer. You know that disclaimer they put on the end of all the shows here on the network. The views of the host of the program are not necessarily those of the network. You know, that kind of thing.

And I've often thought about just doing one. I may get greasy to record it and say the views expressed by the host of this program are not necessarily things that he owns, but that God is working out in his life even as he says them. I don't know.

I don't know if I'll do that. Oh God, our help in ages past. Does that speak to you where you are right now?

How many of you all are crying out that he's forgotten you? If you are, you're in great company, because a lot of people have done that before, including one from the cross. This is Hope for the Carrier. This is Peter Rosenberger, 888-589-8840.

Hey, this is Peter Rosenberger. Have you ever helped somebody walk for the first time? I've had that privilege many times through our organization Standing with Hope, when my wife Gracie gave up both of her legs following this horrible wreck that she had as a teenager. And she tried to save them for years, and it just wouldn't work out. And finally she relinquished them and thought, wow, this is it. I mean, I don't have any legs anymore.

What can God do with that? And then she had this vision for using prosthetic limbs as a means of sharing the gospel, to put legs on her fellow amputees. And that's what we've been doing now since 2005 with Standing with Hope. We work in the West African country of Ghana, and you can be a part of that through supplies, through supporting team members, through supporting the work that we're doing over there.

You could designate a limb. There's all kinds of ways that you could be a part of giving the gift that keeps on walking at standingwithhope.com. Would you take a moment and go out to standingwithhope.com and see how you can give?

They go walking and leaping and praising God. You could be a part of that at standingwithhope.com. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. This is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver.

Actually, we could actually go now further because this is the world's number one show for family caregivers. And we're grateful that it is being pushed out there by a network that believes in the authority of the word of God. This is how we go on offense as Christians to speak to people's lives who are troubled, who are... And look at what's going on around you.

I mean, just look at the craziness that's going on in this world. How are you dealing with this? And I would suggest to you that as believers, we anchor ourselves to these things, just like our hymn today, Oh God Our Help in Ages Past, our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the storming last, and our eternal home.

That is the hymn that just, for whatever reason, that hymn has consistently come back to me over and over and over during the difficult times that Gracie and I have faced. And it has sustained us through many dangers, toils, and snares. And I think that if we can start to let this take hold in our lives, not just as caregivers, but as just fellow believers, as American citizens, that we can withstand these things.

We can look at these things with calmness, look at the terminal around us with calmness, with assurity. That this is not beyond the purview of God. If He's Lord at all, then He's Lord of all. Do we believe this? Do we believe that He's Lord over Alzheimer's? Do we believe that He is Lord over chronic pain? Do we believe that He is Lord over political corruption? Do we believe that He is sovereign over Middle East conflict? Do we believe that He is Lord over all these race divisions that the media and politicians are trying to do to us? Do we believe this?

And if so, how would people know? And I would suggest to you that they're going to know when we do not freak out. I look at people who are freaking out over things and they're keeping themselves in a state of turmoil. I went all day recently the other day and I didn't even watch the news.

I just turned it all off, completely off. And I just noticed how much better my disposition was. The media has a vested interest in keeping you agitated so that you'll keep coming back to them for more engagement. When is the last time a story led off the media with, here is something that showed the greatness of God.

Here is something that showed calmness under very difficult circumstances. They don't do it because that's not their model. You've often heard this, if it bleeds, it leads. That's what they do. So they want to show the car wrecks.

They want to show the train wrecks. And while scripture doesn't shy away from showing the train wrecks that are in our lives, scripture leads off with, oh God, our help in ages past. Just like in Psalm 77 when He said, I will certainly remember your wonders of old. I will meditate on all your work. This is how we stay calm in the midst of the craziness. This is how we do it.

It's right here in the text. It's not my opinion. My opinion is worthless.

I don't even care about my opinion, but my experience in seeing God's provision in this is not worthless. And as I am now in my 35th year as a caregiver, I went through my first surgery with Gracie 35 years ago last month. She's had well over 80 now that I can count and 150 smaller procedures. And we're facing some very, very difficult things ahead of us. Oh God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. This is the journey we are on as caregivers, as believers.

We are looking at observing, participating in very painful things. Can we be calmer in this? Can we be healthier in this? Let me ask you this. Can we be joyful in this? And I say to you, yes, we can. It is not accidental.

It is intentional. And this is how we do it. We remember what he has done in ages past. We anchor ourselves on that truth.

And we also understand that he is the God who does not forget. And I will prove to you, I shared this on my podcast for Memorial Day, because it was one of the, I saw this, we just had Memorial Day last week, early this week, and I saw this particular scripture and it struck me about how God views Memorial Day. We remember those who fell while wearing the uniform. That's what we do on Memorial Day.

It's not about veterans. Veterans hung up their uniform. Memorial Day, we remember those who never took it off. And then Armed Services Day is those who are in uniform. But Memorial Day is the day we remember those who lost their lives.

They never took off the uniform in service of this country. And God had one of those that he put in Matthew chapter one. And it gave the genealogy of Jesus.

Go look it up. How many of you all have ever read the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew and in Luke? And you just kind of, your eyes just kind of glaze over and you think, where is this going? You know, why is this important? We just got to run through all the begats. Beget this, begat this, he begat this guy, he begat this guy. But if you look at there in Matthew one, and it said, and David begot Solomon by Bathsheba, who was Uriah's wife. Uriah was not a blood kin to Jesus, but in the most important genealogy ever recorded for all eternity, God remembered Uriah, who was a soldier who, he wasn't even Jewish, he was a Hittite. And he was a soldier who served David his king honorably and well, even though David acted wickedly and stole his wife, got her pregnant, and then sent Uriah to the front and had him killed in battle. He had him all pulled back, left Uriah out there exposed, and he was killed in battle.

And then David married his wife, the child that was born died later, and then David, and she got pregnant again and that was Solomon. But Uriah was killed in battle. God remembered that in the genealogy of Jesus, he is the God who does not forget. We may think he does. And clearly in this psalm, has he forgotten to be gracious?

No, he doesn't. And he doesn't forget the suffering that you're dealing with. He doesn't forget the angst that you are holding. He doesn't forget the grief that you are feeling right now in the midst of watching someone you love decline and suffer. He doesn't forget that, nor will he.

Does that anchor you? Can you hang on to that just for today? We'll deal with tomorrow another time.

We'll deal with it tomorrow tomorrow, but can you hang on to that today in this hour as you're listening to this and contextualize it? Understand that this is coming from somebody who has watched suffering for 35 years. For a woman who has suffered for 38 years, and as the Gospel of John says, that's a long time. That is a long time. Scripture says 38 years is a long time.

Go look it up. When Jesus went to the pool there and saw that man who had been there for 38 years, and then it said he'd been there a long time. That's a long time. But it's also ample time to see the provision of God in ways that maybe we didn't expect it. Oh God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast at our eternal home.

Can you hang on to that today? Listen, go to HopeForTheCaregiver.com if you want to see more hymns and so forth. I've got a whole CD out there of songs for the caregiver. You can download it wherever you download music.

Let me just play for you. Gracie sings about half of them. She's got her record as well.

If you want Gracie's record, go out to Hope For The Caregiver and be a part of what we're doing. We are still working to reach our goal for all the shipment of stuff we're doing to West Africa. We have a bunch of prosthetic stuff that's being packed up right now at a prison in Arizona where inmates volunteered to recycle them for us.

And they're waiting on the parts there and we're going to ship them. We do all kinds of things at Standing With Hope, which is the presenting sponsor of the show. And we would ask for your help.

If you like what you're hearing on the show, if it is meaningful to you, would you help us right now? We have an offer that we're doing. If you do a one-time gift of $250, stacks deductible, to help us with this, you designate it for the shipping and we'll send you a copy of Gracie's CD, my CD, and my book, Hope For The Caregiver. And just hang on to that. We will get them to you. We don't have a big operation.

It's just a mom and pop, mostly pop. But we are committed to extend the same comfort that we ourselves have received from the God of all comfort, as Paul says in Corinthians. That's how we do it.

And Gracie envisioned a long time ago to lift others up, put a leg on them, put a prosthetic leg on them, just like she depends on prosthetic legs. And I, on the other hand, through this show, do the same thing, giving the same comfort that I have received and still receive. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being a part of what we do. There's more at HopeForTheCaregiver.com.

We'll see you next time. This is John Butler and I produce Hope For The Caregiver with Peter Rosenberger. Some of you know the remarkable story of Peter's wife, Gracie, and recently Peter talked to Gracie about all the wonderful things that have emerged from her difficult journey. Take a listen. Gracie, when you envision doing a prosthetic limb outreach, did you ever think that inmates would help you do that?

Not in a million years. When you go to the facility run by CoreCivic and you see the faces of these inmates that are working on prosthetic limbs that you have helped collect from all over the country that you put out the plea for, and they're disassembling, you see all these legs, like what you have, your own prosthetic legs. And arms, too.

And arms. When you see all this, what does that do to you? Makes me cry because I see the smiles on their faces and I know what it is to be locked some place where you can't get out without somebody else allowing you to get out. Of course, being in the hospital so much and so long.

And so these men are so glad that they get to be doing, as one band said, something good finally with my hands. Did you know before you became an amputee that parts of prosthetic limbs could be recycled? No, I had no idea. You know, I thought of peg leg. I thought of wooden legs. I never thought of titanium and carbon legs and flex feet and sea legs and all that. I never thought about that. As you watch these inmates participate in something like this, knowing that they're helping other people now walk, they're providing the means for these supplies to get over there.

What does that do to you just on a heart level? I wish I could explain to the world what I see in there. And I wish that I could be able to go and say, this guy right here, he needs to go to Africa with us. I never not feel that way.

Every time, you know, you always make me have to leave. I don't want to leave them. I feel like I'm at home with them. And I feel like that we have a common bond that I would have never expected that only God could put together. Now that you've had an experience with it, what do you think of the faith-based programs that CoreCivic offers? I think they're just absolutely awesome. And I think every prison out there should have faith-based programs like this because the return rate of the men that are involved in this particular faith-based program and the other ones like it, but I know about this one, is just an amazingly low rate compared to those who don't have them. And I think that that says so much.

That doesn't have anything to do with me. It just has something to do with God using somebody broken to help other broken people. If people want to donate a used prosthetic limbs, whether from a loved one who passed away or, you know, somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do. How do they do that? Where do they find it? Please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks, Gracie.