We Will Cast These Down

Live on American Family Radio, this is Peter Rosenberger. This is the caregiver.

This is the show for you as a family caregiver. How are you doing? Going on with you?

How do you feel? Not that we spend all this time talking about our feelings, but that's the conversation starter for us to learn as caregivers to speak in our own voice. And whatever comes after the words, I feel, there's no wrong answer.

But now we have a starting point. All too many caregivers don't even speak in their own voice. And in this show, in this program, in this moment, we learn to speak in our own voices. And I speak fluent caregiver, we've been doing it now for a long time. And I'm glad to have you with us. We have some phone line problems.

So as far as our calls today, we will not be able to take them. And I'm very sorry for that. But you can always go out to Facebook. I think I've got that going right now where I'm not being cast off Facebook. And so you can follow along at Hope for the Caregiver on Facebook. It's our page out there and we stream the show live and you can post questions and whatever else you want to do. But we're sorry about that for the phone line. So we're going to see just how well I can carry a show. What do you think? I'll do the best I can.

Hopeforthecaregiver.com if you want to see more information about what we're about. Do you, Gracie, when she had her accident, it hurt her jaw really bad and she had a couple of teeth that really took the brunt of some things. And dentists along the years patched some things together. And a while back, she had to get some crowns. And she was getting used to the crowns. And I was sitting there in a car with her. We're driving down the road leaving the dentist and she was kind of running her tongue over the crown there.

And it was trying to get used to, you know how you feel when you go to the dentist and you want to, you know, you just kind of, if everything just feels kind of different or when you got your braces off. And she looked over at me, she said, do you have any crowns? And I said, not in this life, but I'm assured I'm going to get some in the next.

And she didn't think that was nearly as funny as I did. So, but you ever get that, the people that tell you when you're a caregiver, they'll say, oh, you're going to get crowns. You're going to get crowns. Well, that brings me to today's hymn and you won't be able to call in and tell me what the hymn is, but this is a very familiar hymn that most people are going to know, but there's a verse in there that I particularly want to drill down on today. And this is, while I play for you, it's holy, holy, holy, and early in the morning, my song shall rise to thee. Well, it's early where we are right now and our song shall rise to thee, but this is a hymn that everybody knows. I'm going to go over to the caregiver keyboard here. But, but I want you to, there's a, there's one particular verse in there and a line that we're going to spend some time with today.

Okay. All right, we all know this hymn, Holy, Holy, Holy, but there is a line in there that I always think about when people come up to you and give you this sentiment as a caregiver. Oh, you're going to get a lot of crowns. Well, I appreciate the fact of the sentiment, but we as caregivers really don't need a lot of sentiment. We need practical help. We need things that are tangible that we could hang on to. And when people say that to me, inwardly, I almost kind of cringe because I'm thinking, well, first off, you're implying that I'm some kind of noble person, which I'm not.

I've seen my work. And then what am I going to do with a crown? What would you do with a crown?

Is that why we're doing this? As caregivers, so we can get a crown? And this hymn says this so well, Holy, Holy, Holy, all the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. The only thing I would do with the crown is cast it down at his feet because he's the only one worthy of wearing it.

What am I going to do with a crown? And I think that we get these cultural sentiments, you know, when people say, oh, you know, mama got her wings tonight, you know, when people die or things such as that. And I really try to watch the vernacular and the conversation and the words that we use because it reflects the theology we have. And I have come to understand in my years of doing this that when you have bad theology, it gets pushed on pretty hard when you're a caregiver and you've got to work through these issues.

You've got to go back to know what do you believe and why do you believe this? And sentiment and bumper stickers and weak theology and things like that, they're not going to carry you as a caregiver. They're not going to sustain you. It's not going to endure.

It will get pounded down so hard that, you know, you're going to have to reconcile certain things. And it's not that I try to correct people when they say it. I just don't spend a lot of time there.

And I've said this often, there are a lot of gospel hymns that people like and they're real catchy and fun and all that to sing. And it doesn't really mean something to me as a caregiver, just to sing, I've got a mansion on a hilltop, for example, y'all know that one. Because the first thing I think of is who's going to clean it, you know, and I don't want to clean a mansion on a hilltop and as a caregiver, I do enough cooking and cleaning and laundry and everything else.

I mean, the thought of kind of keeping up a mansion on a hilltop makes me tired. And I just, I think that is us trying to cram in the eternal riches of Christ into something we understand and value for the moment. And I would rather just accept the eternal riches of Christ as something I really can't understand and accept that he offers that peace to us right now. That strength, that fortitude, that endurance right now in the midst of our challenges.

And he'll take care of all the rewards later. I just don't live there. You know, and I've got friends of mine who are really into eschatology. That's a big $5 word. And, but it's basically studying end times and everybody right now is thinking the rapture's coming and we're doing this and we're all going to heaven here soon and this and this and what's going to happen about pre-millennial, obillennial, post-millennial. You know, and I look at that and I think, okay, it's important. And scripture says, you know, look up for your redemption draweth nigh. I get that, but I've got work to do here. And I can't sit there and somehow check out wondering what's going to happen in the future when I've got things that demand my attention in the present. And I trust that God is going to work that out.

I, and as I told one person who was, don't you, aren't you concerned about all this stuff with end times? And I was like, well, how does that help me take care of my disabled wife today? And that's kind of where I live.

I don't know if that's where you live, but that's where I live. I need to keep my head in the game for today and trust that God has all the other stuff worked out, which he says he does. And it's not up to me to somehow figure this out and, and go out and try to teach people about things that I don't have any experience on. I don't have any understanding on. I could just read what the text says.

Here's what it says, and we'll, we'll find out. But in the meantime, here's what the text says about this, which is to be still and know that he is God. Stay strong in this, press on, fight the good fight.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he'll direct your path. That's the kind of word I live. I have to. That's what it means to be a caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberger. This is Hope for the caregiver.

Hope for the caregiver.com. We'll be right back. You know, that song, that's what I'm talking about. And that's Gary Chapman. Uh, one of my all time favorite songs, you've heard me say it many times as you listen to the show regularly. And if you're just now joining us, this is a show for family caregivers.

This is hope for the caregiver, hope for the caregivers, the conviction that we as caregivers can live a calmer, healthier, and dare I say it more joyful life. And I remember the first time I heard that song and it just tore my heart out then. And it still does 40 years later.

And I asked Gary if I could put that in the rotation and he said I could. And it is, um, it defines everything. There's a treasure at the end of this narrow road I'm traveling gives me the, and that's what I'm talking about. We, we, we realize that we're on this very difficult road. We know there's a treasure there and we try to put words, our understanding of what treasure is. You know, we, we try to wrap it in ways that our minds can wrap around.

Well, that's what a treasure is, a mansion on a hilltop or, you know, streets of gold and, and, and all these things that words that we're trying to, but we, we, in reality, the apostle Paul says, no eye has seen, no ear has heard. And it's impossible for us to wrap our mind around it, but, but, but for me, I go back to when Jesus appeared to the disciples after, after the crucifixion and after the resurrection and he appeared and Thomas wasn't with them. And what did Thomas say? We said, well, you know, I'm not going to believe it until I touch his wounds aside.

You know, I'm not, I'm not going to believe this. And then a week later they were all gathered together and Jesus appeared again and this time he went to Thomas and he said, here, touch, now you can see. And Thomas at that point fell down and worshiped him and recognized the, the, the magnificence of what has just happened and what he just experienced.

And there's no record in scripture of Thomas saying, Hey, I'm going to get a crown in heaven. Hey, I'm going to get a mansion on a hilltop. Hey, I'm going to get this.

I'm going to get this. He just was so overpowered by the reality of the risen Christ that there was no other reality beyond that. Andre Crouch had a great tune that, um, he's saying, uh, if heaven had never been promised to me, it's been worth just having the Lord in my life. You don't remember that one? If there were never any streets ago, he actually talks about this. He talked about this in, in, in, in back in the seventies. And that's, that's not one of his more popular songs, but it's one of my favorites of his because he, he touched on an eternal truth that we spend sometimes so much time thinking about what we would do with, you know, how many people w you don't have to call, we can't take calls.

So you don't have to admit this. You have played the lottery and fantasize what you do if you want all that money. Sometimes I think we allow that to get into our theology. And the reality is as a believer, you've won everything. There is no other greater treasure than Jesus. And this is what Gary says in that song.

Jesus is my treasure. The reason for everything. And it's taken me a lifetime to understand the implications of this, particularly as a family caregiver, because I was so busy spending, you have no idea wanting to, to have some kind of reprieve.

Gracie as well. And she'll tell you the same thing, some kind of reprieve, but when reprieve doesn't come, you've got to reconcile with this. And for some of us, it takes a little longer to reconcile than others. And that's my case because I'm a slow learner and it, you know, I used to, I've said this before as well. I used to demand to know why God was doing something. I wanted to, I wanted to know why. And then I came to a realization that I don't know why, and I became comfortable saying I don't know why.

And now as I'm getting into the past 35 years of this, and I'm starting to be comfortable saying I can't know why. I don't have the capability of understanding this. I don't have the mental or spiritual ability to understand these things.

And it always comes back to trusting him who does. And this is where Thomas found himself that night with the disciples when Jesus appeared. There was no other reality.

He didn't, he couldn't even wrap his mind around it. Just my Lord and my God. And Jesus was the only reality. And for me as a caregiver, I have, I have had glimmers of those kinds of moments, just glimpses of it, of those kinds of moments where the magnificence of Christ overpowers all of this. And Gracie as well. And I can tell you when it happens with Gracie is when she sings. There's something that happens when she sings and her body is broken and she is struggling with all the implications thereof. But when she opens her mouth to sing, and I was listening to her last night, I was doing some work and I was listening to her, she was singing along with some worship songs and you know, it just fills the house.

There's something that happens. And Luther used to say this about music, Martin Luther used to say this about music. Next to the word of God, music elevates the human soul.

That's it. I mean, that's, it's the word of God and then music. And do you know who, who really, who took that to heart 200 years later was Bach. And he got that. And so all of his music, and he is considered the father of church music, all of his music reflects his theology, which was to, to give glory to God. In fact, he would sign so many of his pieces, SDG, Sola De Gloria, one of the five pillars of the reformation, to God alone gets the glory, God alone gets the glory. And so when I, when I listen to Gracie sing these hymns and these worship songs and I, and I, and I, and I know the depth from which these things come from her, it elevates the whole room, the whole house.

We got two dogs here that are very full of themselves. Even they'll stop and listen and it, it, it's extraordinary what happens, but it takes a long time to, to walk through that kind of thing where you, you, you grab ahold of it, where you understand it, where you, where it connects the dots. So when I play Holy, Holy, Holy, for example, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea, that's what we're going to do. That's a picture of what we're going to do.

We have no idea what that looks like in reality. But when I play that hymn, I can't, or any hymn for that matter, I can't just bang these things out. You know, and I, I, I appreciate people that can really go after it. I mean, you know, that just, that can play and, and, and all this magnificence, but, but when I play it, I have to think about what I'm playing. I can't play that raucously because when I play it, I think about Gracie in hospitals, not hospital, hospitals, many hospitals, many exam rooms, many nights of pain, and recognize that he sees that affliction. And those moments of affliction, when you cry out to God, become moments of holiness because wherever he is, it's Holy. And that's when you take your shoes off.

So if you're just dancing around and cavorting around and I get all that, that's, there's a place for that, God love him, that's just not where I am. As I look at these very tender, quiet moments where God reveals himself in ways that are so profound that we can't, nothing else matters. And some of you know exactly what I'm talking about and others of you want to, and I would just tell you that it's in these moments when we are so broken, but we realize there's nothing else. Corrie 10 Boone said, you never know how much you need Jesus to release all you've got.

I'm paraphrasing Corrie. But we are so consumed with things that are not Jesus. And so it obfuscates our vision, doesn't obfuscate him, it obviously obfuscates our vision. It blinds us. And when that's cleared away and oftentimes, oftentimes it is our great neediness. Oftentimes it is our great sorrow. Oftentimes it is our great suffering that strips away all the veneer. And a dear pastor friend of mine, Jim Bachman back in Tennessee in Nashville, has said this for years. And he told me he stole the quote from someone else.

I don't know who originated it, but it's absolutely solid. All you need is need. All you need is need. But it's very difficult to cry out to a savior that you don't think you need. And when we are in the throes of our heartache as caregivers and those who are being cared for, our need erupts to the surface. And it's in those moments where God intersects with us, waiting for us to stop running around and trying to somehow fill that need ourselves, but just cry out to him. And then you go back and you look at the Psalms and you see how many Psalms involved crying out to God in distress. And he puts pressure on those places. But then that gives us an opportunity to fall to our knees. And when we fall to our knees and we realize how great his magnificence is, how present he is, and how our efforts to somehow satisfy our own needs will always fail us.

But he won't. It's a game changer. That is hope for the caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberg. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. Hopeforthecaregiver.com and you can follow along on Facebook, if you will. Hope for the caregiver on our Facebook page. We'll be right back. Oh, I love that.

And that's, again, reinforcing what we're talking about here. This is Hope for the Caregiver. This is Peter Rosenberg. This is the show for you as a family caregiver.

That is Gracie and Russ Taft. And in that song, the joy of the Lord is my strength, not the, you know, the streets of gold and the pearly gates and all that kind of stuff. It is the presence of God that is our strength in the midst of whatever. And there is way too much evidence for us to ignore of people standing firm and calm and strong in the midst of horrific circumstances.

And how did they do it? And that's why I love these old hymns, because a lot of these people that did it went back and wrote it down. And they wrote it in hymns that we can remember and we can anchor ourselves in. And you've heard me say this often, we've done a disservice to so many people in this country and around the world by getting away from our hymnals and the treasure trove that's in there. Pick up a hymnal sometime and just read through the text. And then these wonderful composers came along and a lot of them took these great texts and married it with a fabulous melody and harmonies that are easy to remember and help us to remember. Oftentimes we can remember hymns long after we've forgotten a lot of other things. And I've seen that happen.

And so have you. A lot of you have, because I've heard your calls about it, that the hymns would hang on to your loved one. And I watched this with my own uncle, my mother's brother, who recently passed away at Alzheimer's, didn't even really know my mother at times. And yet somebody pulled out a guitar and was playing Amazing Grace and he was singing right along with it. That's the power of music, not only in our minds, but in our souls.

And so if we start to fill ourselves with these things that anchor us in deep, solid truth, it could even push back against Alzheimer's. I've seen it happen. That's extraordinary, isn't it? And that song that Gracie and Russ sing, you can get it off of her CD. By the way, that's a great Christmas gift.

I'm going to make a plug for them. And if you want that, or my CD or Gracie's book or my book, you can get them wherever books and CDs are sold, or you can go out to Facebook page and find out how to get it from there at hopeforthecaregiver.com and write this number down because I love this couple. They have an amazing Christian bookstore in Nashville, Ken and Cindy Dejar, and it's Logos Bookstore, 615-297-5388, 615-297-5388.

He has all the stuff that Gracie and I have done, and we're glad to ship it to you anywhere. They'll even wrap it for you. So you give them a call, 615-297-5388. I think it's time that we start supporting local shops, okay? I'm not here to disparage big shops or whatever, and you can go out and get it from there and download stuff and streaming and all that stuff, but I do like supporting local businesses, and they'll take care of that for you if you want to get that, 615-297-5388. Give them a call.

They're probably not open yet right now if you're listening live, but give them a call, and they'll get you hooked up with whatever you need, and let's try to support our local communities and community bookstores and Christian bookstores and so forth as best as we can. We're talking about casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. There will be times when people will come up to you as a caregiver because they don't know what to say. They will say things that are based in sentiment and tradition and kind of shallow, okay?

It's going to happen. You're going to get a lot of crowns in heaven, that's what they'll tell you. You do this long enough, they'll say it. You can appreciate the sentiment.

You don't have to push back on them real hard, but you can also redirect them to say, you know what? The crown that I have now is the presence of God through Christ Jesus, okay? Because that's where we are right now. He is ever present in time of sorrow, scripture says.

He is ever present. And so when we focus on that, we'll be able to help redirect others so that we're not just letting them swim in the kiddie pool, but that they can have a sense of a bigger picture. They walk away. They're going to brush up against your challenges and your suffering and your journey as a caregiver and with your loved one.

People that aren't experienced in that sort of thing, they're going to brush up against it. And then they're going to go about their lives. But in that encounter, in that brush up, use that as an opportunity to redirect, even just a little bit, their thinking as well as affirming yours, that we take this soberly.

We take this seriously and we're not kind of living way out in the future somewhere. Can't wait to get to the pearly gates kind of thing. Even when I play songs like that, I have to stop and reflect where I am right now. But like when we all get to heaven, you know that one. When we all get to heaven, you know and when people play that. That's how people play it. But when I play it, I have to, when I get to this part. I have to slow it down. When we all see Jesus, when we all see Jesus, when we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory. And how can I play that rambunctiously?

I like that word because my dad used that word to describe me a lot. How can I play it that way? And do all these musical gymnastics to say, hey, look what I can do.

I can play it like this. How can I do that when I am reflecting on this amazing truth that reflects a journey of struggling? And then when we all see Jesus, go back to look at Thomas.

When Thomas revealed himself, I mean, when Jesus revealed himself to Thomas, Thomas just collapsed. When we all see Jesus, we'll sing and shout the victory. And so that's what anchors me as a caregiver. To know that that's coming and in the meantime, I can trust him and then his presence gives strength in the moment. As the old hymn says, strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow. But I don't live in tomorrow. I trust him with tomorrow.

I deal with today. And if we're so busy with our heads up in the sky, we're going to miss the opportunities here, which is what he did. He condescended to this earth, took on human form and went among the people and touched them. We're to do the same. We are to model the same. In fact, he was very clear about it, sick, naked, hungry, prison, thirsty. We're modeling that and touching that, doing that as unto him.

And if we're not doing that, why not? I go back to when Gracie had her car wreck and the paramedics showed up there and when I helped her write her book, I did a lot of the research and compiled all the stuff and all these truckers stopped at first and then they helped put out the fire. And then the paramedics showed up and it took a while to get her out of the car. One of the paramedics and I think at least one of the truckers came back to the hospital later on to check in and meet with their family and so forth and they helped give the recount of what happened. And none of them were saying, first off, they weren't castigating her for having a wreck. They weren't in any way putting her down or anything like that.

And none of them were saying, one day you're going to have this and this and this and this. They were all, every one of them saying, hang on, we're here. We're going to get you to safety. Hang on, hold on, we're going to get you to safety. We're going to help you.

Hang on, over and over and over again. Our language reflects our theology. Our language reflects what we believe. And if we're so busy living way out in the future, what does that say about us? Right here, right now, this is where we live. And we live with harsh circumstances in a very broken world. I get that. I live there. But does that require us to be miserable or somehow live in some kind of fantasy of the future of walking on streets of gold and going through the pearly gates and getting wings and all that kind of stuff?

Or as I say, where I'm from, getting wings. That would make sense with what I see in scripture. I look in Lamentations. You ever spent any time in the book of Lamentations? Go read Lamentations three. And Jeremiah is saying, my soul is cast down within me. I remember the bitterness and the wormwood and the gall.

I mean, these are words we don't use a lot in our language, wormwood and gall, but it's very visceral for him. Then he said, but this I recall to mine and therefore I have hope. Great is thy faithfulness. Thy mercies are new every morning. Right now, today, here.

Is this where you live? Now, if anybody else is saying this to you, you could probably look at it with a raised eyebrow. I watch a woman suffer every single day and I have for more than 35 years. These are things I'm learning right now. This is Hope for the Cares. This is Peter Rosenberger.

We'll be right back. Have you ever struggled to trust God when lousy things happen to you? I'm Gracie Rosenberger, and in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me, but over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish Standing with Hope. For more than a dozen years, we've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people.

On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies, and with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up.

That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope. Welcome back to Hope for the Caregiver.

This is Peter Rosenberger. This is the show for you as a family caregiver. We're so glad that you're with us, and that is, again, Gracie singing a powerful message to give you hope for your sorrow, hope for tomorrow, joy for your sorrow. I love that song, and I love listening to her sing it. I told you when she sings, something just, something happens. Our phonons were down today, so you had to listen to me carry the whole program by myself.

I hope I didn't send you screaming into the night. But I love being able just to kick around some of these ideas, but I wanted to end on something else today, and you'll have to pardon me, because it's real up close and personal. There's a scripture in the Gospel of John, and it's in John 5, and I think most of us know it. And Jesus goes to that pool where all these different people with infirmities are there.

Well, let me read it. Now a man was there who had been ill for 38 years. Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time, and I just want to stop with that. Now a man was there who had been ill for 38 years. Jesus, upon seeing this man lying there and knowing that he'd already been in that condition for a long time.

We all are familiar with this, or a lot of us are, but this month, next week, this particular verse has a great significance to me and to Gracie. Scripture records that this man's plight lasted 38 years, and in the following sentence, if you see that, it validates that 38 years is a long time. November 18th, 1983, Gracie had this horrific act that happened on the highway when she wrecked 38 years ago, and it continues to reach through the decades to cause a great deal of heartache for her. She's not known a day without pain, real serious pain, in 38 years. That's a long time.

Scripture says it's a long time. Just in September, she had a significant fall and broke her femur, a spiral break, and it was an ugly break. She's starting to put weight down and be able to walk on her prosthetic limb with that broken leg.

She's got a lot of hardware in her leg. She causes a great deal of stress for the TSA when she goes to the airport, and she's reminded daily, moment to moment, that 38 years is indeed a long time. Why is this important?

Why am I doing this, and why am I struggling to even say these things? There are numerous passages in Scripture that remind us that God sees us in our affliction, but when I see the Gospel of John say, 38 years, and then turn right around and say, it's a long time, 38 years, it's a long time, when he doubles down on it, 38 years, he knew it had been there a long time, and you cannot help but see the juxtaposition of an eternal God, an infinite God, recognizing that a finite period of affliction was a long time. Think about that. What is a long time to an infinite God? And yet he sees 38 years as a long time. Scripture didn't round the number up. It didn't say almost 40, or a while, a couple of decades, or whatever.

It was very specific, 38 years. God Isaiah foretold the Messiah in Isaiah 53, as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And then you go back and you look, there was a time when Jesus, in Matthew 9, and he saw the crowds, and they were so helpless, and he felt compassion for them, he said in Scripture, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. All of this points to a Savior who is acquainted with grief, but also acquainted with our grief, with Gracie's grief, with your grief. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about one of the Beatitudes where he says, blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. That Scripture implies that the mourning must occur before the comfort can come. There has to be mourning.

You're not going to get comfort before you mourn. You're going to mourn, and then you'll be comforted, is what it says. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. You can't mourn if you're too busy raging and despairing over afflictions, but you mourn when you accept the brokenness for what it is. As Jesus did when he saw the crowds, he saw the brokenness, and he mourned over it. He was at Lazarus' tomb, and he mourned over it, he wept. Remember when he looked out at Jerusalem, and he said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I'd love to be able to just grab you like a hen grabs her chicks, and he mourned over those things.

He saw it for what it is. Looking at our own brokenness, we also mourn, but sometimes we have to go through these periods of flailing around before we look at it and accept it for what it is. And here's what I, just the last minute or two that I have with you here today, here's what I'd like to leave with you. When our hearts falter while waiting on the comfort and the healing, and sometimes we have to wait, most times we have to wait. When our hearts falter when they do, when we do wait, our resolve is strengthened when we remember that God sees the days, the weeks, the months, the years, and even the decades of our affliction, 38 years is a long time. He sees all of this, and he's very specific about it. He counts all of that, and he even counts the tears. Psalm 56 eight says, you have taken account of my wanderings, put my tears in your bottle.

Are they not in your book? I don't know how long you've been a caregiver. I don't know how long you've had to watch brokenness. I don't have to. He knows.

It's not important that I know. It's not important about anything else other than the fact that your God knows this. He sees this, and he is ever present in your sorrow, and sometimes our flailing around and sometimes our anger and our despair and our rage hides that from us. But there is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God, a place where sin cannot molest near to the heart of God, as the old hymn writer says. And in those moments when we mourn and we see the brokenness for what it is, we step into a different walk with God than we had before. We play hymns a little slower.

We stand, however feebly, a little more at attention to recognize that there's something else going on. You know the old song, Holy Ground, where the Lord is present, where he is, is holy. And we start to understand that he is present in our suffering. It's a holy moment, and you will never be the same again. He sees it.

He is there. Thirty-eight years is a long time, and he recognizes that. Hope for the Caregiver is that conviction that we are not alone in this, and he strengthens us each and every day. Hopeforthecaregiver.com.

We'll see you next week. 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 envisioned 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.

Everything. 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, I know what it is to be locked someplace 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. 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 Core Civic 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 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 limb, whether from a loved one who passed away or somebody who outgrew them, you've donated some of your own for them to do. How do they do that? Where do they fund it? Oh, please go to standingwithhope.com slash recycle, standingwithhope.com slash recycle. Thanks, Gracie.