*sigh*

One day while sitting my car waiting for the traffic light to change at the corner of Parkwood and Hawthorne, I noticed a man standing in the median waiting to cross the street. He was wearing the kind of blue uniform that you would expect of someone who works in the dark corners of a factory, where he does the same meaningless task over and over again.  Perhaps he was walking home from the Kellogg's plant down the road.

His shoulders were slumped down, and his eyes looked toward the ground.  His face was sad and tired.

Then, he sighed. It was a deep sigh, filled with loss and hopelessness and despair and weariness. 

I wondered if he had lost his job or if his wife was sick.  Maybe he was tired from so many years of doing the same meaningless job with little hope of advancing or ever making enough money for his family to thrive.

Perhaps the man echoed the sentiments of Job...

For sighing has become my daily food;
my groans pour out like water.- Job 3:24

I thought of all the times I have sighed.  Over disappointment with where I am in life.  With unfulfilled desires of marriage and family.  With tiredness.  With sadness over lost friends, lost time and lost dreams.

I am glad of the truth of these words:

 All my longings lie open before you, Lord;
 my sighing is not hidden from you. Psalm 38: 9

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but  the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Romans 8:26-27