Wake Up, Look Up

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hello everyone thanks for listening to

wake up lookup a podcast where we

connect events happening in real time to

the Gospel of Jesus Christ I'm Zach wck

and in today's episode we're asking the

question who cares for caregivers uh

here primarily we're thinking about the

elderly those who require care for

themselves or for their spouses as they

get up there in age it's prompted by a

heartbreaking article I read in the Wall

Street Journal this week about a couple

Richard and Ellen Hoy Richard was 89

Ellen 85 and I say was because uh they

had been living together been married

for decades and living together as they

both got older and less healthy until

the final point where Richard killed his

wife and then killed himself in the note

he left behind he cited not just the

discomfort and pain of getting older but

the crushing weight of caring for

himself and for his wife it's a it's a

terrible terrible story but it's

actually unfortunately becoming more and

more common than you would think murder

suicides are up among those 65 and older

Believe It or Not 10% of murder suicides

in the United States involve the the

elderly and of those uh older than 80

years old murder suicide is is up

300% in the last few years uh meaning

people in this demographic are three

times more likely to kill themselves and

their spouse than ever before and

consistently what we're hearing is that

the combination of being less healthy

and having to care for themselves and

for each other is just a weight that is

too crushing for them to bear listen as

Christians when we read stories like

this we we have to be careful not to

just push away and say oh that's that's

horrific that's terrible click on a

different story Turn the Page think

about something different because one of

the things the Bible makes clear is that

compassion should be a dominant emotion

for us as Christians the Bible regularly

calls us to care for others particularly

those who cannot care for themselves

that's because it reflects the heart of

God who were told time and time again in

the Bible is for the vulnerable is is

caring for those who are often forgotten

and marginalized in our society and in

all the conversations over the last

decade or so about marginalized people

one group that often gets left out are

the elderly those who tend to be

forgotten those who cannot care for

themselves and if you find yourself in

that situation if you are at present

someone who's getting older and finding

it harder to care for yourself or people

in your family or maybe you have aging

parents and caring for them is a

crushing weight for you I want you to

know that God cares about that that even

as you are a caregiver God desires to be

the one who cares for you in Hebrews 4

We're told that Jesus is a high priest

who can sympathize with our weaknesses

and surely Jesus understands what it is

to carry the crushing weight of caring

for other people of of needing to be the

one who meets other people's needs when

I read passages in the gospel where

Jesus will show up into a town and spend

all day healing and think about the

emotional and physical toll that had to

take that fatigue is the fatigue you

feel so when you when you go to Jesus

you're going to someone who understands

not just theoretically but exponentially

how you feel it's also true that as a

church we have to be a place that is

caring for people in this life stage

Galatians 6 tells us to Bear one

another's burdens and so fulfill the law

of Christ when when one person in our

church is carrying the weight of

carrying for a family member

particularly who's aging and unhealthy

we have to see that as our weight not

their weight whether that is coming

alongside them in the care they're

providing or whether that is like they

do Moses in the Old Testament holding

their arms up as they provide that care

encouraging them giving them the

emotional and spiritual support they

needed th this this is what Jesus meant

by the way when he said all you who are

tired and heavy laden come to me and I

will give you rest Jesus helps us

carries our burdens the burden of our

sin but also the burdens of Our Lives we

have to begin to realize that some of

the most atrisk people in our

communities are the elderly and those

who provide them care I just wonder if

Richard and Ellen had had a local church

around them if they had had Christians

who were paying attention who saw their

burdens as their own if not only they

would have been loved and cared for I

wonder if they would still be alive

that's a question we all should sit with

today and ask God to put on our hearts

how can we how can our families how can

how can our resources be leveraged to

care for the caregivers hey thanks so

much for watching this episode of wake

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