I’m certain you’ve never had a difficult week, but this one has been particularly so for me. There have been any number of personal and professional frustrations, difficulties, disappointments, and failures. The easiest thing would be to throw up my hands, crawl into a hole, and raise the white flag.

Unfortunately, that’s just not possible. Life has to go on. There is work to be done. There are mountains to be climbed and enemies to be overtaken. Frustration may try to win the day, but surrender is not an option.

I would have been lost this week without the perfect confidant: the person that calms, supports, listens, and even fiercely defends against any and all enemies. For me it is my wife. I have the confidence of knowing that my spousal confidant will be the resting place for words that need go no further than her ears.

Since I am a pastor, I have taken a vow to never divulge the sins confessed to me. And I never have. But as a human being there are plenty of other things that ought not remain bottled up inside. They need to be released, given wings, and shared with another. Burdens are never meant to be borne alone. Bearing burdens alone is to be buried under darkness with nary a ray of light to be seen. It’s quicksand, a whirlpool, a cyclone that floods that floods and drowns the soul.

Jesus Himself recognized the importance of sharing the bearing of burdens, of finding confidence in a confidant. He said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28, 30). There is no One greater with whom to share one’s burden.

But He also provides flesh and blood people to be His ears, His shoulders, and His defense from the quicksand, whirlpools, and cyclones of life. I don’t know what I would have done this week had I not had the listening ears and support of someone who loves and cares for me. The Navy seals, who raided Osama bin Laden’s compound, took two helicopters on the mission because, they say, “Two is one. One is none.”

If you don’t have a confidant with whom to share confidences, please do whatever you can to make sure that you do. It will be good for your psyche. She will lift the burden. He will be the rope that brings you out of the quicksand, the lifesaver tossed into the whirlpool, and the high ground protecting you from the floods of frustrations.

Who has been the confidant with whom you share confidences?