Responding to Trials

First, a little update on Dad. Tonight we showed up at the hospital and Dad had just gotten in from the patio where he was getting some fresh air and sunshine. He seems to be doing better than Wednesday. His pain is under control and they are slowly weaning him off of his IV and epidural. The doctor says he might be able to come home on Saturday. All in all he is healing well and his progress seems steady.

On the outside, dad really does look healthy. And I think for me that's decieving. Just the other day I had someone ask me how I was dealing with Dad's illness. To be honest, the question caught me off guard but it really got me thinking. How am I dealing with this situation? Do I just think that Dad's just going to pull through and be healed? Am I just trying to avoid reality? Am I trying to busy myself with the everyday things of life so that I don't have to face the fact that I have a seriously ill dad? I still don't think that I've found the answer to that question and it bothers me. I care so much about Dad and his struggles but I think deep down I'm trying to cope by approaching it the way I approach many things--through a black and white, matter-of-a-fact mentality. And I think that's why I'm having a hard time with this. Situations like Dad's don't fit my comfortable molds. I think I am responding to this trial in the same way that Dad is struggling with cancer.

On the outside everything seems as it should, normal; but on the inside there's a battle going on that nobody else sees.

And isn't that so human? To get busy, to fill our time, to get caught up in the routine of life? Not to say that the things of life are wrong or bad, but just that they often keep us from stopping and facing reality. Reality is a Dad with cancer. Reality is a famine in Somalia. Reality is a friend that gets in a car accident. Reality is a child running away from home. And eventually, reality is death.

Don't try to run or hide from reality, take time to think about it because it is in the middle of  suffering that we meet God. Romans 5:3-5 says that "we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." In short, suffering draws us closer to God. And it is the kindness of God through these trials that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). 

I'm not telling you to go out and find suffering, I'm just saying that we need to respond in the right way--faith... something my Dad is an example of.

Jeremy Van Woerden