A Path Through The Storm

A Path Through the Storm   When storms loom, media outlets often show footage of people placing plywood on homes and businesses and hunkering down. Caregiving is its own storm. Although sometimes receiving advance notice, caregiving can often descend like a tornado—and last a lifetime. If cameras followed caregivers, many daily activities might resemble the frantic bustle of those boarding homes and businesses. Imagine trying to build a five-year plan while simultaneously working to survive a hurricane. Incredulously, many caregivers regularly attempt such a feat. While the aftermath of hurricanes usually brings clearer skies that allow rebuilding, the lengthy caregiving storm usually ends at a cemetery—and the path to rebuilding appears shrouded in confusion, despair, and even desolation. Yet a path through and following the storm does exist. It's called endurance. The challenges of caregiving can forge a resilience and resolve that spills into every area of life. Many faced with hardships lament, "How do I get out of this?" Caregivers (and others) can instead change that question to "What can I become through this?" Entire marketing ads promote tempting versions of success that sadly ring hollow as the years pass. Endurance remains its own success while standing the test of time.           " . . . knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope . . ." —Romans 5:3–4 esv