It was 10:35 a.m. on a Tuesday morning. I remember that it was a typical office day for a Tuesday - sorting emails, fielding phone calls, and working through my to-do list for the day. That's when I received an innocuous text from my oldest daughter. She’s 25, married, and a working professional. We text off and on most days, but not so much on weekday mornings. I gave her text a quick glance and it turned out she was having trouble with a health insurance claim.
At 25, our daughter is still eligible to be on the family insurance plan. That day she had already spent a good deal of her morning trying to call our insurance carrier to sort things out, leaving her baffled and fed up with the process. This was partly because the number she called on the back of the insurance card was connecting her to a company promoting medical alert devices. Not only that, but they kept putting her on hold. She got suspicious and hung up and dialed the phone number on the back of the card again with the same result. That's when she reached out to me.
Over the course of the next hour, I did quick check-ins with her and at one point logged into our insurance carrier to make sure she was indeed listed as a dependent. I also confirmed that the insurance card on my screen matched hers. It did. She was not having any success and was getting increasingly frustrated. She even had her husband call the number and he easily got through to the insurance carrier, just as I did when I called. However, no matter what she tried on her phone she got the same result and was not able to connect with the insurance company.
How often do we repeat this same cycle in our own lives? We face difficulty and, on our own, we try repeatedly to get past it and are continually thwarted. We may gather friends around for counsel, but find ourselves disappointed because they really cannot help. We try different tactics, but end up with the same result. At our worst we drag it around with us as a burden for weeks and months, causing ourselves much emotional turmoil.
What if there was a way to get through this and leave this hardship behind? There is! Jesus told us how in Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.”
Note the emphasis I added here - “YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.” Go to Him in prayer, follow His Way and you will find that rest.
If you have been struggling, stop and restart with prayer. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple restart of the mind, heart, or phone to be relieved of our problems.
~Beth England (Executive Administrative Assistant)