Unexpected Breeze, Eternal Reminder

Hey, do you know a caregiver in your life who's struggling with something and you don't really know what to say?

Well, guess what? I do.

So get them this book. It's called A Minute for Caregivers When Every Day Feels Like Monday. They're one minute chapters. And I'd love for you to put that in the hands of somebody who is struggling as they care for a chronically impaired loved one. And it could be somebody dealing with an aging parent or special needs child.

Somebody that has an alcoholic or an addict in their family.

Somebody who has a loved one who has had a traumatic experience, mental illness. There's so many different kinds of impairments. There's always a caregiver. How do you help a caregiver? How do you help somebody who helps somebody?

That's where I come in. That's where this book comes in. And that's what I think you're going to find will be incredibly meaningful to them. And if you're going through that right now, then get a copy for you. Friends don't let friends caregive alone.

I speak fluent caregiver, four decades of this. This will help. I promise you, it'll pull you back away from the cliff a little bit, point you to safety, give you something solid to stand on so that you or that caregiver you know. can be a little healthier as they take care of somebody who is not healthy caregivers. Make Better Caregivers.

It's called A Minute for Caregivers when Every Day Feels Like Monday, wherever books are sold. And for more information, go to PeterRosenberger.com. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberger, and this is the program for you as a family caregiver. More than 65 million Americans right now are.

dealing with this issue. And they are volunteering to stand without training most of the time between someone with a chronic impairment and even worse disaster. A lot of people think, well, you know, I'm a caregiver. I take care of my kids. I take care of my grandkids.

if they're not chronically impaired. then that's not a caregiver. And you may have tasks that intersect. But a caregiver is dealing with somebody whose situation may not improve. In fact, it may get worse.

And this program is designed to help them stay strong and healthy. As they take care of someone who is not, and I'm bringing four decades of experience to offer a lifeline to my fellow caregivers. Peter Rosenberger.com PeterRosenberger.com. Happy 4th of July, by the way. It's a big deal out here where we live in Montana because there's a big rodeo, and every year I get to go to it.

I didn't get to this year. And um Disappointed for that. I'm disappointed for Gracie that she can't go, but that's not. She can do right now, and she can't sit for that long a period of time. And so we have to watch the 4th of July from a distance.

But we got we we're up a little high and we can see the fireworks down in the valley and that's kind of nice. But they have a big rodeo that's a lot of fun. It's very Americana. I mean you you've got friends of ours whose daughter is singing the national anthem there. In years past, we've had uh cold front come in and rain and sometimes but then it'll break just as the rodeo starts and we'll have big rainbows there that cover the entire valley.

I mean, it's just very beautiful. And then the uh they'll have the the lady come in with the flag on her horse and she's going around and while everybody's uh standing and uh the the anthem's being sung and there was there's always an invocation and and you know, just it's it's it's an amazing moment. And it's a pretty big deal that they have a parade here and it and there's a large number of tourists that come to this little town. I don't know that we've got 1,500 full-time residents in this town, but during the Fourth of July weekend, there'll be 25,000 people here or more. It's kind of a pass-through town from Glacier to Yellowstone, so we get a lot of RVs and things such as that.

It's not a lot of fun to go into town when this is happening because uh the um There's only so many streets, and you get stuck in traffic, and you can be there for a while.

So, Gracie and I do prefer to stay up where we are and away from all that. But I do like the rodeo, and we'll do it again. We'll have it again, but this time we're still recuperating from what she's been through. And sometimes you just have to say no to certain activities.

However, um I was able to this week get her out on the deck and she can't sit for just long periods of time. We just want to let this thing heal. And it was nice for her to be able to get out there and get some sunlight, you know, being in a hospital for five months. And I think that's something I didn't really expect when I got her home. And and I may have already told you this, but when I got her home, We were, it was a little bit crazy getting her out of the vehicle.

She has to kind of lay down in the vehicle. and I built I bought a ramp that you can get her out of the truck with. And the truck seat goes almost flat, and then I would put something under so that it keeps her from uh bending at the waist. That's what we're trying to avoid doing for as long as we possibly can until she can start walking. Once she starts walking, she's gold.

But they don't want her doing that just yet, so she's limited to laying on her side or laying on her back for the most part. And just very, very brief moments in a wheelchair or sitting up for meals and that kind of thing. But When I got her home and I had some friends helping me get her out of the vehicle, it was a little bit stressful. She was tired. She didn't feel very good.

She had three drains and everything else going on. And she stopped for just a moment. And where we live, we're about 6,000 feet up, and it goes back into the Rockies. We're up in the mountains. And.

As soon as she got out of the vehicle, She felt the breeze on her face. And and she just stopped for a moment and said, Oh That feels wonderful.

Well, I didn't even think about it, but she has not felt a breeze of warm spring, summer breeze on her face since last fall. Um, because you don't have a lot of warm summer breezes out here in Montana after uh October. And then she was in the hospital until June. And so you you think, wow. You know, it's just one of those moments where we just realize that little things and how precious they are to us.

And so she loves to be able to just and out here the air is so clean and it's after being in a hospital where it's just stuffy and they do it the best they can in a hospital, but it's filled with sick people, a lot of people there, and it's a big hospital and then where we were in Denver and metro area. But up here you got the pine and the cedar and the sage and it's just you could just tell it just made a huge difference just taking a deep breath. Don't you think that's kind of. a tiny picture. of what it's going to be like.

for us in glory. that moment where you just You know, you're just breathing in freshness and cleanness, and there's no more of the. The stuffiness and the oppression and the grime and the dirt is just. Ugh. You know, C.S.

Lewis talks a little bit about that in many of his writings of the realness of what heaven will be like. And I just had a tiny taste of that when I saw Gracie, and I thought, oh. And I've maintained that the first, I don't know how you measure time in heaven, do you know? I mean, I I have no idea. But However, it's measured.

The first couple of months, I would imagine Gracie would just spend time just stretching, you know, just stretching. And I think that is our hope. And I think I've had a lot of time to reflect on these things. As we've gone through this ordeal and we're no stranger to difficult things, I mean, we've been doing it for 40 plus years, but. It's you know, it you you think about how do people do this without that hope?

How do people function? In this kind of trauma and heartache, without the knowledge that God is sovereign over this and that He's not abandoned us and that there is something that awaits. I've been studying in 1 Peter. I went through Acts and the Gospel of John while we were in Denver, and now I'm in First Peter. May I take a moment here in 1 Peter 1.

Verse 3. Let me just I'll start. There, and I'm going to just go down and just read this to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Who by God's power are being guarded through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire, May be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him? You love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And I thought, I mean, that is a. We could spend a lot of time just in that. small little excerpt there, verses 3 through 9. But Go back to what he says there.

And then this is a guy that actually spent time with Jesus on earth. This is Peter. And he clearly wrote this. There's a lot of documentation to that effect. To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

And every now and then we get these Brushes, these foretaste of what awaits us. Just little things, maybe just a breeze like that. That that This is what's promised to us, and so much more. imperishable. One one translation I think says incorruptible.

All of this is being preserved for us. and yes, for a season. and that season may last a lifetime. we endure these very difficult challenges. But we don't endure them without hope.

We don't endure them without being strengthened by the Word of God and His Spirit and. Us being the church ministering to one another to remind. That's why Peter, in this letter, he writes it out. He's saying this to fellow Christians. This book is to the elect.

That's what he says. He opens it up with it. And that gives great hope to this caregiver. And we've got more to go. For this caregiver and for my fellow caregivers.

And this is Peter Rosenberger. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver here on American Family Radio. This is Peter Rosenberger and I am very glad to be with you, hopeforthecaregiver.com or PeterRosenberger.com. And either way, it'll get you right to the place you want to go.

Where we have tons and tons of things out there for you as a family caregiver. You know, I'm doing this. series on 30 hymns that every Christian ought to know. And I'll be covering that in the next block. And by the way, that list is probably going to grow to more than 30, but let's just start with that.

But I also want to take on some questions and some concerns and some beliefs and thoughts and.

so forth that caregivers have that they may not want to tell anybody about. 25 issues that caregivers struggle with. that they are reluctant to talk about. Do you have anything that comes to your mind?

Well, let's start with one today. And we'll we'll see and you tell me. Am I hitting a nerve? Am I on the right track?

Okay?

So let's start with this one. praying that God would take your loved one home. I've talked to way too many caregivers. who have expressed a lot of guilt on that. I have struggled with this over the years.

I've seen Gracie suffer immeasurably and I'm thinking, Lord, why are you leaving her here to do this? And then you feel guilty.

Well, let's back this up a little bit. Would you be willing? to take a step back. and consider maybe reframing the conversation. About what it is that you're actually doing if you're praying that God would take somebody home.

in the context of their suffering. and their challenges.

Now there's an old saying in the South, you know, he needed killing.

Well, that's not what we're talking about here. That's a real saying, by the way, in the South. Oh, he needed killing. That's not what we're talking about. You're not asking.

God to commit murder. In fact, I would suggest to you, That that prayer of beseeching the Almighty Lord, why don't you just take him home? is in itself several layers of faith.

Now you may feel guilty about it, you may be embarrassed. Or shamed? or reluctant to even broach the topic. But here we are. And you're listening because chances are you've broached the topic.

if not with someone else, certainly between you and God. You look at somebody who is suffering. horrifically. And you think back to Scriptures like for me to live is Christ, me to die is gained. It's better to be present with the Lord.

I mean, as opposed to suffering endlessly for years and years and years and sometimes decades. And I can't help but look at this situation with Gracie. I don't want Gracie to die. Gracie certainly doesn't want to die. But when you face suffering like this, on and on and on that's relentless, the question's going to come up.

Gracie and I have had very frank conversations. in the hospital, many times. But I want to just address this issue. of what's actually going on in this prayer. And I would say the first thing is.

if you have prayed this prayer. But you're feeling ashamed or guilty or whatever. Hold on. First off, you're acknowledging that there is a God. And that you're not that God.

That right there is a statement of faith. You're acknowledging that there is a God and that you are not that God. You're acknowledging that there is a better life that waits for this person. By doing that you're taking Scripture at face value of what he says. And you're acknowledging that God is sovereign over life.

Not you. You're not taking matters into your own hand. That's why this whole cult of death movement that's in our culture of death. dying with dignity and all that kind of stuff. It is such an affront to Scripture.

Because it's saying, No, God, you're not sovereign over this. which he is but it is sinful to do this. And I can back that up with scripture. Deuteronomy 32 32. 39.

See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. That in itself, now that's an uncomfortable scripture for a lot of people. That sounds very harsh, but well, this is what it says: do we believe it or not?

Okay, I'm not here to debate. what it says. I'm here to say this is what it says. Then I want to go to another scripture, though. 1 Corinthians 6, 19-20 you are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God, in your body. Notice the absence of the word healthy. or pain free So glorify God in your Healthy body? pain free body? Perfect body?

Those words aren't there. Glorify God in your body. Even disease and pain filled. disability, all those kinds of things. There is no nuancing of this.

It just says Glorify God in your body. And so when you take Take those things into context. And then you think about a prayer, and you're looking at somebody who is ravaged by disability, ravaged by all kinds of things: disease, trauma, pain. And you think, Lord. And you just take her home, Alzheimer's.

Huntington's disease. There's so many different things.

Now, I'm not advocating that we go out and start praying for God. I'm asking you to step back away from that and maybe let's have a different vocabulary. 'Cause what are we really asking for? We're not asking him to kill somebody. We're not asking him to go against his nature.

We're asking him, appealing to his nature, which is Merciful. And that's what we're asking, just mercy, Lord. Mercy Please show mercy. And the only way sometimes we can picture that is that they go on home. to be with him.

the most merciful thing we can do is to leave this horrific sin filled Disease-broken world that we live in. and be in eternal presence of God where there's none of those things. And I think to God you know, w would it not be more merciful? With Gracie, for example. And yet he has chosen not to do that.

He has chosen to say, No, this is what I'm going to do here. And some people argue, well, you know, God has a permissible will. He's not ordaining this, he has a permissible will.

Well, if he has a permissible will. That means He's choosing to permit it. That means He is ordaining it. for whatever reason.

Now the question then becomes, am I going to bend the knee to this? Am I going to say Though he slay me? Yet will I trust him like Job? Am I going to be like Abraham when God. Was telling him what he's getting ready to do with Sodom and Gomorrah.

And Abraham was negotiating, trying to see if can what if what if there are just this many people? And at one point Abraham just says, Shall not the judge of the whole earth do what is right? Am I going to do that and defer to his judgment? Am I going to say God You got it wrong? But when you pray for someone to be released from this, I don't look at that as an indictment over you or me or anybody for having a lack of faith.

In fact, I would suggest to you that it is an indicator that our faith. is in him. The object of our faith is what we're talking about, and you're appealing to God for mercy. You're appealing to God for mercy in a way that you can understand and I can understand. But maybe our understanding is not complete.

In fact, I would suggest to you that it is not. And so we still bend the knee. to his wisdom in this. And so when we pray, Let's pray with that in mind. Father, I don't know what to pray here.

I don't even know the words. I just asked for mercy. You see the suffering, you see the plight. I I said this myself during this time in Denver. I walked away from Gracie in the ICU and she looked so fragile.

And it was a tough place. for me to to see this. She was unconscious. And it was just a tough thing to see. And normally the ICU is kind of busy and there was nobody around.

I'm just looking through the glass there, and there's nobody around. And that's when I said to myself, First off, Christian, what do you believe? And then I I said to the Lord as I as I just walked away for a minute just to clear my head. I said, if you're not going to heal her, And if you're not going to take her home. Please grant me the ability to care for her.

Provide what I need. in order to do this.

Now that's about as gut honest a prayer as a caregiver can make. I don't know why God has allowed Gracie to suffer on the level that she has. If you go and look at First Peter, it's because he has got something in mind. with purifying our faith. Mine and hers.

I don't understand it. and he didn't ask me to be a consultant on it. And yet here we are. But so many caregivers that I've run into when they've been doing it for a lengthy time, particularly when there's a great suffering. secretly sometimes pray God, why not just take him home?

It's a real prayer. It's an honest prayer. But I think the more precision we can have when we pray, the more that we can delve deeper into things of God, it's going to shape the way we pray or view our prayers. Scripture says the Spirit prays for us in words that we can't even understand, in groans. But for us Maybe if you can just take a step back from this and realize you're not praying for death.

You're praying for mercy. And his mercy.

Well, what does Scripture say about his mercy? There are boundless scriptures. One of my favorite is Lamentations 3, 22 through 23. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. Remember that little chorus?

They're new every morning every morning great is our faithfulness when you pray. And I I know those low moments. Try this Lord Have Mercy. And maybe not. Just ask for your loved one.

Maybe have mercy on you. I do not know how that will manifest itself in your life. I know how it has in mine. But maybe that can be our prayer. I know people feel guilty about this prayer.

I know people feel guilty when they're saying, Oh, just, Lord, just take them on home. I understand that. But it may be an opportunity for us to pause and go into the immutable characteristics of God, and one of which is His mercy. And the other Track that it may also provide for us is a chance to show obedience. Look at what Christ did in Gethsemane, He didn't want that.

He didn't want to have to go to the cross. But he said nevertheless, Not my will but thine. Can you imagine what would happen, our plight, if he didn't go to the cross?

So I don't know what God has in mind. but I know it is for His glory and our best. But that's hope for this kicker. This is Peter Rosenberger, PeterRosenberger.com. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger, Peter Rosenberger. And you know I started last week this new series. on thirty hymns that every Christian ought to know, particularly every caregiver. Uh some Christian that I don't know.

And you know I love the hymns.

Well I've already run into a snack.

Alright, I have. I've run into a snag. And that snag is, I can't limit it to 30. I remembered this one. About that one.

I forgot about this one. But you know what? I'm going to do 30. And then, if we need to do a part two. I'll do that as well.

How about that? You know, we can we can Go with the 30 and I've broken them down into theological sections, if you will. Like the first one, first section is going to be the nature and attributes of God.

So last week we did Holy, Holy, Holy. This week we're going to do one of my all-time favorites and it's All of these are my favorites. I I'm never going to be able to distinguish them, but we're going to take a stab at it. But this one, and there's a great story behind it as well, as far as how it was written. And as usual for so many of these things, the text was written long before the music was.

Alright, now I'll I'll give you a musical hint. And I'm going to throw in some high dollar cords in there, so get ready. All right, you know that one. It's how great thou art.

Now, let's talk about where this hymn came from and it What what started out was um is is a Swedish hymn. And the guy named Pastor Cooper. Carl B. Boberg, not to be confused with Rosenberger. Carl Boberg was walking home after church.

when a sudden storm exploded over the landscape. Thunder, lightning, downpour, we've all seen it. But then the skies cleared very quickly. and sunlight broke through, birds started singing again, and he was so moved that he wrote a poem called O store good O store gud. That's my poor attempt at Swedish.

And it's basically translated to O Great God. And he had about nine verses to this. But it was a beautiful poem, and it was t talked about all the things that he was witnessing and seeing and what it was doing to his heart. And then decades later, there was a missionary named Stuart. And he heard a Russian version of that poem, not the Swedish one, but the Russian one, in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine.

and he was serving among the peasants and the refugees and um even they were hiding out from the Nazis. During that time, and he began translating and adapting this, and he added verses about Christ's sacrifice and our responses to praise and the hope of Christ's return to this. And he had seen the storm like you know, Boberg had like we all have. And Felt its fury and the awesomeness of it, but then rather than get all nervous about it, he just saw the majesty in it. And This is uh and then goes on to write these these beautiful lyrics, and you know the tune.

Now, I play this a little bit more. slowly than most people will. I I'm not in a hurry to get through this hymn. I I like just reflecting on it. And again, you have to think about the context of everything I play.

I play for a woman who suffers all the time.

So she's not interested all that much in you know, earth went in fire. On when it comes to praise music. I mean, that's, you know, she's just not, you know, do you remember? I mean, she's not that's not where Gracie is. She's there to bolster her spirit and sing about the awesomeness and the majesty of God.

And I'll give you an example of this of when this when she sang this song, and there have been a lot of people who have performed it. There's a great version out there of Carrie Underwood, I believe, that does it, but I would put Gracie's version up against anybody, but nobody ever heard it except me and God. and the and the animals that were maybe around there because we went out on snowmobiles into the forest behind our home here in Montana. This is many years ago before we actually moved out here full time. But we were here one winter and Gracie and I went out there on the sleds and there's a place about almost six miles back in the forest behind us.

uh called Shot Lake. And it was completely frozen over, and it kind of sits a little bit in a bowl. And it's surrounded by these majestic peaks, and there was just snow everywhere. I mean, it was just so much snow back there. And I guess we're about.

I don't know, eight thousand plus feet up. Back where this is. And it's in the dead of winter. And Gracie now stopped. and in that magnificent vista, And it's r really hard to describe it, how big it is.

She started singing How Great Thou Art. at the top of her lungs. And it's just reverberating around. All of creation. And I I just listened to her sing.

It was it was one of I think one of her best performances ever. That she had done with this. And I love this song. Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee. How great Thou Art.

And of course George Beverley Shea, Used this at the Billy Graham Crusades worldwide, and it became just a staple. In fact, many people thought he had written it. But it's um. This hymn is such a profound him. for us as caregivers.

Why? Because it lifts Our eyes. It lifts our thoughts. It takes them out of the drudgery, the difficulty, the pain, the sorrow, all these things. Not that we're ignoring it, not that we're.

just living in with with blinders on. But it lifts our eyes to the things of God. Which lifts our spirits, which equips us to continue on. And that's why I play this a little slower. Than a lot of people do because I'm not in a hurry, number one, to get through, but also I'm playing it for Gracie.

I'm in a hospital room sometimes. I'm or I'm in a situation at home where she's struggling, or the people that I'm trying to reach are are besieged and and battered and besmirched. And um I I like alliteration. And so I want to play things for them that settled their spirits down. Oh Lord my God.

When I was some wonder consider. Are you considering all? The world side Yes made.

Now you think about that. but all that he's made. And where we live here in Montana, I I see this vast Landscape here, and I see the magnificence of it just in this little tiny thing. And think about this: when you translate this to, you know. the entire cosmos.

of what God has done. Thy power through hell. The universe. Display And then remember what I said last week? You can't have good theology without a doxology.

And that's what this is. Then sinks my soul. A savior. God to thee how great thou art how great thou art in silence And you just take your time with it. You're not in a hurry to sing this song.

I mean, I'm not. And again, if you're doing it congregational style, people are going to want to go a little faster. But if you're doing this in a hospital room, Or if you're doing this for your wife who is Struggling with whatever, or if you're out on a snowmobile in the middle of the forest, you're not in a hurry to sing this. went through the words. In forest glades, I wonder.

and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur. That's where I live. I look down from there and I hear the brook. I can open the window and I hear the creek out there. and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul. My Saviour God to thee, how great thou art And then you come to verse 3. I I I love this verse. And when I think That God Yes, son. not sparing.

Sent him to die. I scarce can take it in. It's hard. Two. gripe and complain even as a caregiver.

when you have your eyes firmly fixed on what happened at the cross. That on the cross My burden. Gladly bearing.

Now, he's bearing my burden gladly. He did this. He bled and died. To take Obeying my sin. You can't help but erupt.

with praise. See? Small. And when we come back from the break, I'm going to do the fourth verse, and I like. Like I told you, I want to go through these slowly.

I want to go through them line by line. I want... Not just for you as a fellow caregiver, but for me. I want this for me. I want to go back and remind myself of these things so that I can lift my eyes.

so that I can lift my thoughts high. Higher than the suffering and the difficulties I see. And when I do that, I can help Gracie do it. We lift our heads, we lift our thoughts, we look to this great God. Oh, Store Gut.

This is Peter Rosenberger and this is Hope for the Caregiver. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger.

So glad to be with you, PeterRosenberger.com. This program is designed for. the family caregiver. For those of you who are willingly voluntarily, often without training. and usually without sleep.

putting yourself between a vulnerable loved one who has a chronic impairment An even worse disaster. And I'm grateful to be a part of the journey with you. I have been doing this now for four decades. I've learned a few things. along the way, most of it the hard way.

But I've also found moments of great joy and beauty and things that sustain me and one of those things Is the church hymnal? And I have Poured through the hymns. And I've been playing hymns since I was a kid. And and I I learned how to play playing hymns. And but as I got deeper and deeper into my journey as a caregiver, those hymns became more and more valuable to me, more precious to me.

And so I wanted to share those with you today. And in this series I'm doing of thirty hymns that every Christian ought to know, particularly every Christian caregiver. And we've been doing How Great Thou Art. Last week we were doing Holy, Holy, Holy. This week we're doing How Great Thou Art.

And it's part of a the first grouping of, if you will, is the nature and attributes of God. And so, this is the second one in that group. I have, I think, seven or so in that group. And this is the second one. That we've been discussing how great thou art.

And as promised, we got to the end of the last block and we were at the end of the third verse. But then we get to the fourth verse. And the fourth verse, let me go over here to the caregiver keyboard here. Mm. This gets a little bit into eschatology, but it still focuses.

On The magnificence of God. And when I play this congregational style, I'll um I'll go Wind Cry Show, come. Which films of echo? Patient. Take me.

But then you gotta, you really have to slow it down right here. Then I shall Now. With humble Mm. Adoration. I mean, you can't sing that and just, then I shall bow.

You know, you can't do that. You've got to let your words and the way you in the expression thereof. Reflect what the text is saying. And there proclaim My God, how great God. Then you just let it.

How great thou art how great thou art Savior God to thee how great thou art and a lot of people do it as this How great thou art Everything Gracie can go up very high there. Help me, and she can go up there very high and do that. I cannot, but.

Sorry about the mic noise here as I move back, but This is the hymn that I wanted to share with you all today. My challenge is to you as a caregiver. Can you find one moment in today's Days. journey for you as a caregiver. Where you can sing this song, one verse of the song, if you could only do one stanza.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder Or you go back to that third verse, which is so powerful. when he says Stuart Klein translated I don't know exactly what the the Swedish version was, but when he said, And when I think that God, his Son not sparing, sent him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross my burden gladly bearing.

Now, can you think about that? while you're bearing a burden. And I know the burden you're bearing as a caregiver. I know what that looks like. But the challenge that is For for you and me, for both of us.

Is can we wrench our eyes off of what we're bearing. Uh focus on what he bore. On our behalf. When we do that Watch what happens to us as caregivers. It doesn't Make it necessarily easier for what we do.

And it's not going to. alleviated. It's not going to all be sunshine and rainbows. But it's going to change something in us. What we're doing.

by doing this is what Paul said, do not be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That's what you're doing. You're renewing your mind and you're focusing on the things of eternity, the things of the kingdom. And you know that old hymn, I'm not gonna, it's not one of the 30 hymns that every Christian ought to know, even though it, well, it should be.

I see, there's no way I can do this in 30, but turn your eyes up. Look for And see, here's where we go as caregivers. Uh What? Faye. Of earth will grow.

Strange. In what? In the light of his glory and grace. See, see where these hymns, I mean, you can't stop singing these hymns.

Sorry, my mic's got, I gotta put some WD-40 on that mic. But you can't stop. Go in there with them. This is what you call compact theology. That's what our hymnal is filled with.

And I'm on a one-man mission here to reintegrate these into our daily life, not in just the 11 o'clock worship service, but into our daily life. to sing these hymns over and over and over again. I go back to the the The song we did some years, some weeks ago, Jesus I Am Resting, Resting. that was written by a lady and and her Her brother was worked for Hudson Taylor. and he was killed.

There in the inland China Mission. And Hudson was so distraught about this. And many of the people that worked for Hudson Taylor. Would hear him singing that hymn over and over through the day, Jesus, I am resting, resting, as he grieved at the loss of this dear man and his wife and his son that were killed. On the mission field.

Jesus, I am resting, resting. He did the old version of it. G, J. G, G, G, G. Mm-hmm.

Please decide. Resting, resting. You know, I can't remember that one. Anyway, but that's another hymn we'll deal with another time. But Do you see what it does for us as caregivers?

We're going to go through the day and we're going to deal with a lot of hard things, and then, when we've done it all day long, we're going to get to the night. And we're going to deal with it more. And some of us are going to be dealing with this. You may be listening to this program at 2 in the morning. If you're But I hope you are.

Because That means that you found something that's going to speak to you as a caregiver in the dark watches of the night, and those are very lonely places, and I am privileged to be there with you in it. And I know this program rebroadcast late at night on AFR. on Sunday nights. And I have a lot of people that listen to it, including people in a prison that listen to it 'cause that's when they can have the the uh the ability to listen on the radio, I think they're in the prison area. And so I'm I'm grateful for that.

There's something about these hymns. that have such lasting Power to them. You know, I've played, I've told you this. I've played so many funerals over the years. I can't even count how many funerals I've played at.

And I've never had anybody come to me and want to Do the service in popular music. There's not m much in contemporary Christian music. that I've had people ask me for. But they've asked me a lot. about the hymns.

A lot. And that's where people live. And if it's something you want at some of the worst times of your life, well why would you want anything less than that in every other time? They sustain you.

So, I'm going to go through this series, and that next week is. One of the I mean, next week, you're going to love this hymn next week. You're going to love it. But I'm not going to tell you what it is.

Okay?

This week was how great thou art.

So look for an opportunity today to just whisper it out. That's that's what I'm asking. Oh, Lord, my God, when I an awesome wonder Consider all the worlds thy hands have made. If th if you get no further than that, That's okay. Listen, our time is up and I've got to go.

I need your help. We've got a lot of things going on now that we're back out of the hospital and we're getting back into the swing of things. I've got to get some supplies for the clinic over in West Africa with our prosthetic limb outreach. We need some help with liners and sleeves, a vacuum pump, and other things. These are things I'm probably going to have to purchase.

And we could use the help. And if you're being blessed by what we're doing on this program, would you take a moment to go out to our website? You can go to PeterRosenberger.com or standingwithhope.com and get involved. Just whatever the Lord leads on your heart. We're just a mom and pop.

We're a small ministry, just mostly pop right now. And we don't have a lot of administrative costs or anything else, but we do have things we have to purchase for what we do with the prosthetic limb outreach. And you could help us do more. And I would be very grateful for that. And I know Gracie would as well.

So thank you for that. This is Peter Rosenberger.

This is PeterRosenberger.com. Thank you for the time today. Don't forget, sing this hymn during whatever part of your life that gets your teeth grinding, start singing this hymn. And we'll talk next week about the next one. We'll see you.