I don't know if you are like me, but when something big happens in my life I immediately have this overwhelming urge to tell someone or say, the entire Facebook community! I usually go down the line of family members and friends who are on my mental call list. When this something is a negative life experience, the pressure to "go tell it on the mountain" is even greater. It is almost as though I expect a release or peace from the pressure of anger, fear, or sadness, just to share it with others. Usually, there is a slight or temporary release by telling others, but there is no real resolve. No real peace, until...I take it to my Lord.
I found a Bible lesson that is a great reminder of who we need to take it to and trust to resolve it for us. In 2 Kings 4, there is the story of Elisha and The Shunammite Woman. Elisha was coming through her town quite often, so she asked her husband if they could make a room with a bed for this "holy man of God." They made him one and in return Elisha wanted to do something for her. His servant Gehazi said that she had no son and her husband was old (this meant she had no one to provide for her if she became a widow.) So Elisha told her she would have a son and she asked "just don't get my hopes up." A year later, she had a son just like he had said.
When the son had grown up some, he was in the fields with his father and screamed that his head hurt. The father sent him home to be with his mother. She held him in her lap until noon and then he died. She carried him up to Elisha's bed, shut the door so no one would know, and went to her husband. She asked her husband for a servant and a donkey, so she could go see the man of God. He asked why she would go to him at such a strange time of year and she said, "It is alright." (This woman only had one thing on her mind, getting to the man of God who gave her a promise of a son which was fulfilled. She didn't mourn for her son, she didn't go sob with her husband, she just wanted to get to her direct link to God, Elisha.)
She told her servant to go fast and don't slow down for her unless she asked him to. When Elisha saw her in the distance, he told his servant Gehazi to run to her and ask if everything was ok. When Gehazi got to her, he asked and her response was again, "Everything is all right." When she got to Elisha, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi tried to pull her away, but Elisha said to leave her there. God had not told Elisha what was wrong with her, but he knew she was in bitter distress.
Once Elisha found out the woman's son had died, he gave his staff to Gehazi and told him to go quickly to the boy and lay the staff on his face. The woman said as surely as the Lord lives, she would not leave Elisha, so he got up and they went to her house. (Again, she was relying solely on her source to God and didn't want to rely on anything less.) Gehazi was not successful in raising the boy, so he ran back to meet them. Once Elisha got to her house, he went into the room and raised the boy. He called for the woman and told her to take her son. She fell at Elisha's feet once again and bowed, then took her son.
Through Elisha, the Shunammite Woman served the Lord, she was blessed by the Lord, she shared her pain only with the Lord, she trusted the Lord in His promises, and she praised the Lord for His provision. She recognized the Lord as her main source for everything and she never looked away from that. So the next time I have something big happen in life, I hope I remember this story and don't waste any time. I hope I just take it straight to Him!
