At my new home, the hardwood floors had been laid and the painter had just finished the last stroke. It was time to move from my house that is for sale at Boone's Trace, back to Missy's home at Andover Hills. We had rented a U-Haul truck and two dear friends, Jeff and Glen, were going to help us move some things. I woke up early that morning, thinking about how moving things from my house to our house brings an additional layer of reality to the closing of a season, while fully embracing a new and exciting one. Still, I was concerned how it would go and asked the Lord for help, then I shared with Missy what I was thinking about. It ended up being a great day! I enjoyed the sense of accomplishment so much and yet felt so relieved, I could hardly believe it or settle down until late that night.
The next day I attended worship at Crossroads, then headed over to Centenary UMC to hear my dear friend, Matthew Sleeth, M.D., speak about creation care. If you have any concern for the environment and what role you play in it, get a copy of his book, "Serve God, Save the Planet". Anyway, I sat by his wife Nancy, who has heard the cries of my mourning and prayed with me many times before introducing me to Missy months later.
At the end of Matthew's talk, he asked us to be quiet for sixty seconds and ask the Holy Spirit what He would like to tell us. Immediately, in my mind's eye, I was at Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor, Maine) viewing the Otter Cliffs on a very foggy morning. But, instead of seeing the photo I had created at this place almost twenty years earlier with Sally, it was a "live" scene and the waves were crashing against the rocks just like it had been on that October day. I was very surprised by this. I "see" scenes often during worship services but this one I was not real excited about. It hurt. I asked the Lord, "Why do you want to take me there?" Then, a familiar praise song began to play in my head called, "Blessed be the name of the Lord". I had always liked this contemporary praise song and never took it that seriously until I tried to sing it after the thief called cancer came into my life and attacked the body of my former wife, Sally. "Blessed be the name of the Lord, for the road marked with suffering, there is pain in the offering, blessed be the name". Somehow, in that moment, I was reminded again that the suffering had been lifted up to Him as an offering. It was not wasted and He was pleased with my offering. It is my personal belief that God does not cause suffering but everything that occurs in my life has to pass through His hand first. It may not be His perfect will, He also has a permissive will. As hard as it is to say, my life is much richer and has greater depth because of it.
II Corinthians 4:16 "So we're not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There's far more here than meets the eye. The thins we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can't see now will last forever." (the Message version).
What about you? Has suffering affected you in a positive way? What do you think?
