Isaiah 50:4
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
For the last week or so I have spent most of my evenings texting back and forth with old and new friends in Afghanistan, trying to keep their spirits up until they find a safe way out of the country. I’m not alone in this, of course. There are thousands of Americans and Afghans already in the U.S. and around the world doing the same thing. At first the messages were the same. “Where are you, are you safe, what do you need?”
But we all quickly realized that on some level, those questions don’t matter. You can’t send money because the banks aren’t open, the borders are closed, and the airports are shut down. Movement is risky because nobody quite knows what the Taliban is doing with respect to former Afghan Gov. employees, including the Taliban. The more we talked. The more weary we all got.
So now we share stories. Photos. One friend sent me a photo of ice cream, I responded with some photos of our puppy. We swapped sunset photos this morning from around the world, and shared memories of happier times in Afghanistan and our dreams for what the future will look like. We even share prayers across traditions and languages. Did it help? Did it make the Taliban disappear? Or open the borders? No, certainly not.
But does it sustain the weary? That is my hope and prayer. It certainly sustains those of us on this side of the border. I hope it does for those on the other side as well.
This past Monday was Labor Day. As we all took a collective day off, it was not lost on me that there are thousands and thousands of Afghans who risked their lives for us, with no days off, trying desperately to get to safety. They continue to labor, alone and in silence. A more cynical person than myself would suggest that the U.S. Government and the Taliban are hoping that the rest of us will just forget. We will get weary of hearing about the plight of poor people speaking a language we don’t understand in a land we cannot find on a map. Our weariness is their strength.
I don’t presume to say what gifts God has given to whom, but we all have the ability to sustain the weary with a word. By sharing some joy, offering a comforting ear, something to laugh about, even sharing pictures of home.
You may have some people in your own life who are weary. What can you share with them to lighten their load? Photos? Silly stories? Hopes? Dreams?