Today, as I look out my window onto Lake Ontario, the wind is whipping up the water into huge waves, and rain is running in rivulets down the windows of our condo. I am reminded that each one of us, in this life, at some time or another, will face very hard times. It could be our declining health and wellbeing, a troubled family life or other relationship, our precious children or grandchildren getting off course, the loss of a job, home, and/or our savings, or the death of a loved one. There is no limit on the amount of suffering in the world, including wars and rumours of wars. In the Bible, in the book of Matthew, Jesus states that the sun rises on all, and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. What exactly does this mean? Rain signifies different things in scripture, but here it means that God loves each one of us, and both good things and bad things will happen to all people.
For some of us, in fact, it often seems that disaster is waiting around each and every corner. We are the unfortunate individuals or families who seem to have it worse than others, as we jump out of one sizzling frying pan into another…many times, we never see misfortune coming our way, until it is much too late. If we are Christians, we know that we have the favour and blessing of God. Why then, do we suffer as much or even more so than evil people who deny and often defy a loving and just God? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to this age-old, perplexing question.
An extended family member remarked to me the other day about what a hard life I have led. She had just learned about my husband’s illness and was also aware of what I had endured in my first marriage of 31 years. Paul has been struggling with chronic back pain and fibromyalgia for over five years now and has been in bed for a large portion of that time. His mobility is very limited, and as a result, we are unable to travel much or even go out to visit friends and family. It makes for a horrendous combination of various symptoms and is a very isolating disease process. We have done the rounds with various doctors, who have little to offer, other than medications that dull the pain and take the edge off. However, these medications are not without their own side effects, and moreover, none of the supportive therapies have worked much for Paul. Thankfully, his pain specialist has weaned him off most of the drugs, and he gets some relief from weekly nerve blocks along his spine.
It is so hard to watch his long-suffering, but he is not a complainer and does the very best that he can to manage it all. In the Bible, true long-suffering means to have self-restraint when one is stirred to anger. Long-suffering is also associated with mercy and hope and does not give in to the circumstances or trials that dot our life. The longer the trial goes on, the harder it is to not become bitter over what has not changed or improved in our lives.
The real tragedy is that we got married the year before his back went out, so we had very little time together as a happy couple. Over the years, both of us have separately endured many trials and tribulations, and this was our second chance at true happiness. Paul has been a lifelong Christian, and grew up in a Christian home, where his dad was a pastor and his mom had a strong faith background. While we continue to hope and pray for miraculous healing, we cannot completely know the mind of God on this matter. We may ask God “Why?” and might momentarily wonder if this is a punishment from Him for some unknown crime. While I do not personally believe this, I do believe that God will use what we are going through to mold us and shape us into the image of His character. And in the process, He is also teaching us patience, obedience and trust. As Paul used to tell me all the time, “Obedience brings the blessing.” We both have many, many blessings to thank God for, despite what we have been recently going through. Like the subtitle of my memoir, “Joy Comes in the Morning,” each new day brings new hope.
Most importantly, God sees what we are enduring and is with us in the fiery furnace. Just like the three young Hebrew men, we have the assurance that Jesus is walking with us through the fire. Although we may never have all of our hopes and dreams come true in this life, we can look forward to a just and perfect life in Heaven some day, with the Lord and our saved loved ones. If we have accepted Jesus as our saviour, we know where we are going when we leave this earth. It says in the Bible that there will be no tears in Heaven, and I, for one, am looking forward to that day! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!
