Difficult Seasons

I received this the other day from my friend Allen Thyssen.  Normally I wouldn’t just cut and paste, but this article is so good I want you to get to read it, and it’s not possible for me to just link to it.  I’ve done a little editing to make sure the folks involved can’t be identified.

The following posting was made by the daughter of a cancer patient who is currently in ICU.  It is a touching testimony to the value of a ‘ministry of presence.’  Please pass it on as you see fit. (Allen)

Update…well we are about the same.  We are just waiting to see if the liver will decide to get to work.  As we sit here with broken hearts we see just how merciful God is.  Even with all of this going on we received a good word from an unsuspecting source.  We were going through a difficult time and I guess this individual could hear me crying.  He comes up and says “I know I am a total stranger but I just wanted you to know I am here for you”.  Then his first question was “does your father know the Lord?”  We then began talking and he said “if we spent as much time praying for lost people as we did to keep the saved here with us…what a different world it would be”.  This fact has been evidenced by dad and his life.  If you remember, just a few days ago dad was witnessing to his nurse.

We then learned his grand-daughter has been fighting cancer,  and in the last 7 years she has had 11 surgeries.

While his grand-daughter is in ICU facing additional surgeries he took the time to reach out and comfort me.   I want to take the time to thank this man.  I don’t even know his name but God sent him to comfort me at just the right time.

Amy VanHuisen writes about faith and struggle, and I often find that her blog makes me think.  Today she wrote about the loss of a young mom in their community who leaves behind a husband and three young children, the youngest only 8 days old.  She titled the post, “God, How Could You Do That?”  Amy’s writing is honest, and you’ll be blessed by clicking over to read her post before coming back to read some thoughts that occurred to me.

The first thing that jumped into my consciousness was a conversation my daughter Sara, a nurse practitioner, had with a colleague this week.  They are members of a palliative care team, and deal with patients and families suffering tragedy daily.  Faith nearly always becomes a part of the conversation with the patients and families, and sometimes among the medical staff.

The conversation went something like this.  The colleague said, “I don’t believe in God because if there were a God, he wouldn’t let the things that we see happen to people every day happen.”  Sara’s response was, “Do you really believe that God is the only force active in this world?  What about Satan?  What about the free will God allows people?”

This is a good summary of the faith struggle that we all go through as we experience events like Amy writes about, and our question often becomes like Amy’s, “How could God…”

I don’t have the answer.  But I will offer a couple of thoughts.

1. God has not yet won the final victory.  The Bible makes clear that we live in an active battle ground with God on one side and the forces of evil led by Satan on the other.  Until that final victory when God creates the new heaven and the new earth, this earth that we live on will continue to experience injustice, tragedy, illness, poverty, and all of the other things that are wrong, that are unfair.  And these come equally to all of us, whether we are people of faith or not.
2. When I read what we call The Beatitudes in Matthew 5,  I see Jesus talking about people who have suffered and who are suffering what’s not fair about this world.  He doesn’t say that we won’t have to mourn (v4), for example, but he says simply that those who mourn will be comforted.  Jesus seems to be offering hope for those of us who suffer in this life.

Which leads me to this final thought.  The more of life I experience, the more I look forward to that point in time when God claims the final victory, when all the bad stuff ceases, when God is fully in control.  That doesn’t mean I don’t love this life and getting to experience it with my family and my friends –  just that more and more often I am aware of how flawed this world is, and how wonderful heaven will be.

Ron Edmondson started his blog post this way…

How many times has someone said to you, “God will never put more trials on you than you can bear”? I challenge you to show me that in the Bible.  The problem I have with this myth is that it keeps so many believers wondering why they can’t handle their problems, falsely believing they should be able to, because someone once told them the lie that God would not put more on them than they could bear.

He as an important point to make.  It’s important to reassess some of the statements that we all hear and maybe say often when we’re in difficult seasons.  This is one of them.  So put your thinking cap on and read the rest of what Ron had to say.

By the way, he writes lots of good practical stuff, so you may want to add his blog to stuff you check on from time to time.  Or just follow him on Twitter.

Hospital Sign

Interesting things happen when you make hospital visits. Things that are not easily explained by skill, or preparation, or knowledge, or planning.

For no good reason, you start in the middle of the list instead of at the top, and that person says, “You showed up at just the perfect moment because…”

Without any forethought or knowledge, you ask a question or make a remark, and the person you’re visiting says, “Wow, it’s amazing that you said that!  I’ve been thinking about that all day.”

You sit down in the cafeteria for a quick lunch and end up striking up a conversation with someone at the next table.  She pours out her heart to you about her troubles, and says, “I haven’t had anyone to talk about this with.”

You see, none of us are  good enough to make those kinds of things happen on a regular basis. Maybe by chance something like that could happen once in a lifetime.  When it happens repeatedly, you need an explanation.

Here’s mine.  Someone bigger, wiser, and more knowledgeable than we are has become involved.

Jesus made this seemingly outrageous claim one day:  “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20)

Interested in seeing God at work? Make a bunch of visits to sick people or people in prison or feed and clothe a bunch of needy folks, and you’ll be amazed at how often you see things happen that can only be explained by as God working.

Feel free to add your stories in the comments.

(Photo Credit: Katyscrapbooklady)