I am a poor, wayfarin’ stranger
While travelin’ through this worl’ below.
Yet there’s no sickness, toil nor danger
In that bright land to which I go.
I’m goin’ home to meet my Father;
I’m goin’ there, no more to roam.
I am just goin’ over Jordan
I am just goin’ over Home.
For some reason, when I read the word for today, TIRED, that song came to mind.
As a nurse, I work with patients in rehab who are tired in ways I have rarely experienced.
They are
- sick
- weary
- burdened
- worried… wondering if their lives will ever be the same again
They have
- been seriously ill, often close to death
- been chronically failing
- had a stroke or
- fallen and broken a bone
Many are nearing the end of their lives.
They are struggling with multiple losses.
They are weary strangers trudging through life
Yes, they often have families who love them, but because of
Depression, pride, dementia, fear, grief
They often feel like strangers, not only to their friends, but to their families.
They are bone tired.
For some, there is no fight left.
They have been fighting and feel they are on the losing side.
They just want to pack it all in.
Death is not a hopeful thing for them.
They just hope for an end to their misery.
They are at the end of the road.
They are tired of traveling.
The journey has been long and difficult.
Their destination? A good place…they hope.
But many aren’t certain…at all.
Weary. Tired. Laboring. Struggling.
Please let me just go to sleep and not wake up.
Not like the Stranger…who is going home to meet his Father…with joy and anticipation.
I found this final verse after STOP and wanted to add it in. Don’t you love it?
I want to wear a crown of Glory
When I get Home to that good land.
I want to shout salvation’s story
In concert with the Blood-Washed Band!
I’m goin’ there to meet my Savior
To sing His praise forevermore.
I am just goin’ over Jordan.
I am just goin’ over Home.
—Negro Spiritual
There will be more to come on this topic!
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I wrote this 12/2/11 when I was working as a nurse in rehab. I loved the article so much, I didn’t even change it! I know it seems like an odd topic for Christmas, but for many of you it fits in very well! I have friends who have lost loved ones recently, are sitting with them as they die or are celebrating their first Christmas without them! Christmas is a joyful time…most of the time. But it can be very sad too. The reminders in this song encourage all of us! This is why Christ came! Enjoy.
If the term I used for “Negro Spiritual” isn’t the right one, please correct me. It’s the only term I know and it is used with the ultimate respect for a body of music that I adore!
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I forgot to put the rules in for the uninitiated Five Minute Friday user. Here it is, as briefly as I can put it.
- Write on given topic for 5 minutes.
- No editing. Well, I reread and make sure it makes sense. Otherwise, what good would it do to write it? I also check the spelling. I hate typos or misspells.
- I add in my links and photos and send it on its way.
- Stop to encourage the person before you. I am allowed to encourage anyone else I want as well. That is one of the purposes of this exercise!

Yes, I found you through Shy Masterminds, but hadn’t realized that when I wrote the comment! Glad to know you – your heart is like mine!
🙂
Hi,
I’m visiting from Gypsy Mama. I enjoyed your writing, loved the way you wove the spiritual together with the life experiences. Your clients are lucky to have someone so compassionate!
I’ll never use the word “tired” without thinking of this post, Martha, and I don’t think I’ll ever again use that word to describe my ordinary, end-of-the-week fatigue.
Terrific post. Thank you.
thank you pat. i appreciate that. i’m glad i succeeded in giving a glimpse of some of their pain and grief…soon to be some of ours at some point.
The feelings these folks you mentioned are having, that’s where I’m at right now. Very low, very tired, and feeling like a stranger even around family. Thank you for sharing this song.
I’m visiting from Five Minute Friday. Have a wonderful weekend and a very Merry Christmas.
welcome suzanne:) glad yous topped by. sometimes it helps to remind ourselves of the truth. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation. We are part of the family of God. We are daughters of the King of Kings. Reading through almost any section of Scripture will be encouraging…whether the Psalms (poetry) where David describes the struggles He had with God and listened for God’s replies, Job, who by the end of his suffering came to worship a God much larger than He knew before…or read the many teachings of Paul in Colossians, Ephesians, Hebrews (which they aren’t positive he wrote)…to name a few. reading in small bites, thinking about what you are reading and asking God to open your eyes to truth will be helpful to your thinking AND encouraging as well. i struggle with depression, partly as a side effect of medication i must take. these are some things that help.
That is a very beautiful, stirring song. Beautiful words here. Thank you.
It is a spiritual. they have been around for years, but the words always seemed to be anchored in our hope that this life isn’t the final chapter of the story. their lives were certainly difficult, (understatement for so many) yet they had hope. Can you imagine singing to the music of that Band? The Blood-Washed Band? That will be some band won’t it? WOW!
I can relate and have so much more compassion for the elderly now that, at age 40, after a bone marrow transplant, I feel in my body at times what they must feel like too. I have the hope of a restored body in Heaven and have been learning to live with a new normal. But, for those whose change just crept in on slowly over time, it must be hard to deal with…seemingly no reason (like a bone marrow transplant) to look to as the reason…just age-related, I imagine is even harder because your mind is as young and active as it has always been, for many anyway. That’s what I find so difficult–that my body can’t do what my mind is always ready and wanting to do! Nice post and I’m glad I saw it on my newsfeed on FB today!
thanks for stopping by krista. you are in the new shy mastermind group aren’t you? november sort of vanished. i haven’t been there as much this past month. have been wanting to get to know the new members. in 1995, i lost a close friend to complications from a bone marrow transplant. i couldn’t visit her b/f the transplant b/c i got a cold:( so disappointing.
i look forward to getting to know you better when life calms down…right! i hope to get to know you b/f then:)
re to topic i wrote on, i tho’t of many rabbit trails related to what i was writing. it is a topic that affects so many b/c of the way the families are affected. i couldn’t believe how that song turned out to have so much encouragement. must stop rambling:)