He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3 ESV

There sometimes comes a time when a person is just done.

Kay Bruner was done. The 30-something missionary stood in the middle of a gravel road, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and said, “I can’t do this anymore.”  So, they gave her a little blue pill and put her to bed. When she woke up, she wanted to die.

God’s prophet, Elijah, did too. Elijah and God had dealt with the crazy wicked king and queen, calling down fire from heaven and putting to death 850 false prophets (1 Kings 18). The queen vowed to have Elijah’s head. Terrified, Elijah ran and ran, sat down under a tree, told God, “Take my life!” and went to sleep.

But when God’s beloved are done, God does two things: He comes in wisdom and He comes in just the right way. Elijah’s needs were first physical. God sent Elijah food, touched him and put him back to sleep (See 1 Kings 19:5-6). God didn’t even begin to deal with Elijah’s thinking until Elijah had rested.

Kay Bruner needed to be listened to. All of her life, as a missionary kid and then as a missionary with her husband, she’d put her feelings on hold, pleasing, serving, trying so hard. Deeply isolated on an island in the South Pacific, she’d struggled to do language studies, Bible translation, birth and homeschool four kids. God had said, yes, she was done with living like that, so He sent an “earthquake,” in the revelation of her husband’s pornography addiction. God used the crisis to bring healing to both Kay and her husband.

 

Resource reading: 1 Kings 19:1-21