Friday, May 15, 2015

When the Answer You Need is not the Answer You Get

     I've been dealing with a chronic pain that has made my life miserable at times over the last year.  It has often impeded my ability to do the things I want to do, and after five months of striving for effective treatments, today I got the answer: the situation is likely permanent and there isn't anything the doctors can do about it.

     I am keeping this in perspective - I can think of a ton of things that doctors tell patients every day that are way worse than my situation.  But there are going to be some challenges ahead, and while thinking about dealing with them, I thought about Paul, asking the Lord to remove his thorn.  God said, "My grace is sufficient."

     Well, I'm glad and grateful to know that I follow a God who is all-powerful, and despite what any doctor tells me, if He wants to remove this thorn, He will.  The scary part for me is if He says, "My grace is sufficient."  I know, in my mind, that His grace WILL be sufficient.  My heart, however, is not fully on board yet.  I can't see the details of how His grace will be sufficient.  But maybe that's not necessary.

     I listened to the car radio on the way home, and a song came on.  I didn't catch the name, or the artist, but the song said to listen to the Voice of Truth, and no other voices.  And that the troubles we have will be used to bring glory to God.

    The thought of my troubles being used for the glory of God had not occurred to me.   Will God fix me, despite the depressing prognosis, and bring glory to Himself in that way, like the blind man in John 9 -

As he (Jesus) went along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him."*

Or is God going to ask me to bring glory to Him by trusting Him, even if He decides to leave me with the thorn?  Time will tell.



*NIV, from BibleGateway.com