Clearly, I am not a patient person. I quickly tire of struggles. The length of this particular trial seems longer to me than others I have managed to muddle through. I want it to end, to be resolved.
God…can we be finished with this? Can my son experience healing and return to work? Can we be done with all these doctor visits and the resulting time lost, with bills to be paid?
Hope believes at some point, the mess will end.
Be merciful and gracious to us, oh God. Let it be finished.
Psalm 57:1 creates a buffer. “In the shadow of your wings will I take refuge and be confident until calamities and destructive storms are passed.”
Being confident in the source of our help is not the same thing as being patient. Perhaps I need to be more confident in the timeline of this particular journey.
Verse two of the same Psalm underscores that God has a purpose and performs on our behalf. What is the divine purpose in this mess?
- To teach me patience?
- To work out God’s plan for my son’s life?
- Something else in the universe I don’t know about?
God promises to be working for our good. Hmm…the problem with this promise is that we don’t usually see the good until years later — maybe not until eternity.
How then can we react in the now? How can we believe in God’s goodness when everything seems to be on the negative side?
In the “Diary of Private Prayer,” Brother John Baillie writes, “Let me go out into the world with a brave and trusting heart.”
A brave and trusting heart. Is it bravery that causes me to clench my jaw as doctor after doctor speaks, “Well, we’re just eliminating things and finding out what it isn’t.”
This bravery my son exhibits as he is poked and prodded, tested and manipulated, filling out reams of forms for medical files that travel through cyberspace from one facility to the next.
And the trusting heart? Obviously, I fail in this regard as I type my questions into this post. What is the root of the problem? When will we know? Why can’t any of the experts figure it out?
How long oh Lord how long?
Yet with each test, with every prolonged appointment, we learn more about the incredible machine God has designed as the human body.
How portions of the ear canal determine why our necks ascertain gravity and don’t flop around. How blood pressure is affected by anxiety. How the parasympathetic system goes whacky after a long surgery. One organ affects the activity of another.
I watch my son’s flickering eyes on the computer screen as his body reacts to yet another audio test. Those long eyelashes that gave me angel kisses when he was a toddler. The way God has grown his body into a man. And the gift that we know this illness is not another cancer.
The questioning heart gives way to a bit more of trust as patience tries to squirm its way in. My soul tries to accept another lesson of the time required for this particular trial.
Hope still lives although she is weary. She looks toward the end of this mess as a time for gratitude. Yet she struggles to patiently wait.
©2018 RJ Thesman – All Rights Reserved
Hope Shines even in the waiting periods of life. Check out these hope-filled essays in regular or large print.
Thank you for being honest about your struggle with patience, faith, and trust. You have had great sadness and anxiety these past twelve month or more. In the Bible translation by Eugene Robinson, a verse in the Psalms says “the good man has his struggles too, but God is with him in each and everyone of them.” I can relate to that…I am trying to be good and for some unknown reason I face struggles but I am reassured that God is with me.
Thanks Ginger. You are an inspiration to me.
Grace your way as you continue to wait well.
Thanks, Jerry. Getting closer to answers.