For Others....

Lately it seems like many of my friends and people that they love have been experiencing some sort of suffering in their lives.  One prays for a companion for years, and then the companion is diagnosed with Cancer.  Another calls me, feeling helpless as he watched his bride grapple with the fact that her mother and her best friend has cancer.  Another...a colleague at work ...someone both very young and very close to them is also very ill with a life threatening ailment.  And still another, the most selfless man I know just about beats one serious and debilitating episode and then is hit with another serious illness.  And now as I write this, hundreds are dealing with a senseless act of violence in Las Vegas.

Why all of this suffering?

We all have been on the bed of suffering.  Paul told us again and again -its going to happen and for us to endure it. Easier said than done.

I was talking to one of my friends today who is suffering and in a way even worse - watching someone he loves suffer. And then I remembered when I wrote about suffering when Jacob was sick -in a post called "Suffering Reveals Jesus".  I sent him the post and I encouraged him - I told him what I experienced when someone said the word 'cancer' and how it took Lorrie and I about a month to recover from that blow: 'Jacob has Leukemia' and then how Jesus showed up and walked with us.  I also told him what I learned about suffering;  namely that it reveals Jesus to us.

I encouraged him as best I could.  After we hung up - I re-read that post as it still hung in the browser...

"We readily accept the good from God. Why then do we have such a hard time accepting suffering? Me included - I have a hard time with it. Why do we think that any of us will somehow avoid it?
Suffering reveals Jesus - that is why none of us will avoid it. It is, believe it or not -a mercy. It drives us to the King when we are too stubborn to go on our own. It strips me of all of the things that I place between Jesus and me - so its just me and him. It is only then that I am ready to accept the mercies Jesus gives me during the suffering -and I am certain the blessings after suffering. Not just for ourselves but for others."

I was dumbstruck.  "Not just for ourselves but for others."  And now I see it.  I've told you all that we were blessed and we received mercies from Jesus when Jake was sick.  I had given no thought to: "... but for others."  

And yet, here it is... Jesus's story as told through Jacob has come full circle  - for others.  Praise God for others....

Amazed at and in AWE of this Jesus..

Marshall