"Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." This is a popular quote from the movie The Princess Bride and there are times I'm tempted to believe it. It's not only my own pain and sorrow but the sufferings of others that sometimes make me want to take this pessimistic view of life. But then in the darkness I am aware of a flickering light and I am drawn to it's glow.
Could it be true that sorrow expands the soul for joy? As a Christian I am to walk in the truth and to deny that pain and suffering exist would be a lie. I will not lie there have been many nights when I have soaked my pillow with tears. But when morning came I also found the redeeming truth that though weeping may abide for the night joy does come in the morning, but why?
Last night was one of those nights. Tomorrow I will have a brain MRI. I have had severe hearing loss which indicates that my tumor is growing. I am also aware of the burdens that those around me carry. So lying there in the dark the tears flowed freely. This is also a time when I choose to let my spirit speak to my soul. This is what I heard in the darkness:
"Through him (our Lord Jesus Christ) we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:2-5)
Lord Jesus, it is through You that I have obtained grace so that I can rejoice in hope. My confidence and my expectations are not in what I see or in what I experience but in what You have promised me in Your word. You have redeemed my sufferings and have taken the very things that could destroy me and instead You have used them establish a deeper reality of peace in my heart because through Your Holy Spirit You have poured out Your love for me.
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