Kristin Schuchmann with Jannekah Guya holding newborn Adali Lynn

The other day it occurred to me that sometimes, life is a lot like labor…and that just like when labor gets hard, when life gets hard, I need a doula!

I was recently reading about “undisturbed birth” and while I am by NO means an expert on the topic, and though I do understand the general concept, I also know that for myself, there have been times when I’ve been in labor and I desperately NEED the presence, voice, and touch of someone rather than being left alone to my instincts as everyone else quietly knits in the corner.  And I’ve discovered that it is the same in life.

Sometimes, in labor and in life, I can get totally overwhelmed and lost in the darkness and the pain.  Sometimes I need a voice in the darkness to call me back into the light.  I need to be reminded why I am doing what I am doing, that the pain is temporary, and that the reward awaiting me is great.  I need to be reminded that in my weakness, His strength is made perfect and that I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.  I need to be reminded that He will never leave or forsake me.  I need to be reminded that the pain is birthing life!

Just a couple short months ago I was birthing our sweet baby girl.  I began to panic because I could feel my body pushing her out and it was SO INCREDIBLY PAINFUL.  I felt so out of control because everything was happening so fast, I didn’t even have time to compose myself or make the conscious choice to work with my body.  I was just yelling, “No!” and “Help me!” and “I can’t!”  I felt NOTHING like the warrior birth hero I’ve always imagined myself to be.  But even in the darkness of that all consuming pain I was so lost in, I could feel my husband next to me and I could hear Kristin’s voice calmly saying, “You and your baby are ok.”  Suddenly I felt baby girl crowning and Kristin reminded me to do slow, gentle pushes.  I regained some sanity and some control and it felt SO much better.  Little by little her head eased out.  I could hear my husband’s loving encouragement as she was born.

In labor and in life God has an incredible, unfathomable plan and destiny for each and every one of us.  But we cannot fulfill or accomplish it alone.  We can’t do it without Him, and we can’t do it without each other.  Birthing God’s call is incredibly painful and the labor is long and hard.  Sometimes things spiral out of our control.  Everything is happening so fast and we are in such excruciating pain we become totally consumed and lost in it.  To make things even more challenging, the enemy of life fights us all the way.  He whispers to us that we can’t do it, it’s too big for us, we’re not strong enough, and we should just give up.

That’s when we need labor of life support!  We need a “doula” to remind us who we are in Christ, who Christ is, and what He has promised us.  We need to be reminded that the truth remains true regardless of what is happening to us in that moment.  We need someone to remind us to take it one contraction at a time – one challenge, one giant, one mountain at a time.  We need the presence of people who love us to give us strength and remind us that no matter what the enemy says, we are NOT in it alone.  We need to be reminded that the Author of Life is in control and He has created and designed us to birth life and destiny.  We need to be reminded that He WILL give us more than we can bear so that we will have to rely on Him to do the miraculous and so that we might know Him more intimately when He meets us at the point of our deepest need.

Maybe it’s just this doula’s heart that beats in my chest, or maybe it’s that I’ve been going through some especially difficult challenges the past few weeks, but I am eternally grateful to the few precious people who have been my labor of life “doulas”, lovingly and tireless providing life support as I labor to birth God’s purposes.  As we honor and glorify Him by loving and supporting mamas as they labor to bring forth their sweet little ones, may we also honor and glorify Him by supporting each other in the labor of life to bring forth His will.
“…that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him shoulder to shoulder.” – Zephaniah 3:9

Our International Charis Family
Your stories from around the world touch us and we pray for your safety.
Thanks, Love and Blessings to every one of you!

 'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth,
 Among  them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and The one who labors with child,  together,
 A great throng shall return there...And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.'
 Jeremiah 31:8, 14~~~
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June 2013