“It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn your ways.” Ps. 119:71
Afflictions come in many forms…aliments to our physical bodies, torments of the mind, relationship heartache, etc. And they HURT! The good news is that God takes these rips in our physical bodies, holes in our personalities, tears in our relationships, and He enlarges our heart with them. …He enlarges our heart (its capacity) and inclines our heart (its yearnings) while He “works all things for good”. Rom. 8:28
These holes, rips and tears in our lives sometimes are healed on the spot, but more often, our Lord chooses to repair/heal the hole over a period of time (or like with Paul’s ‘thorn’, may choose not to heal it). And it is during this repair/healing time that He opens up new horizons that otherwise may not have been revealed or realized.
Let’s illustrate with this rather simplistic example: Our son’s blown eardrum of 1-4-10 is still healing…the ENT specialist did a “pseudo surgery” last week, and Conner was instructed: “No blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing or water immersion for 2 more months.” TWO more MONTHS?!!! That is a crazy long time for not blowing your nose, coughing, sneezing or cleaning oneself!
And yes, Conner was a bit depressed leaving the docs office, especially when told that at the end of 2 months, if the ear still hasn’t healed, they would schedule surgery (general anesthesia and another 1-2 months of “healing NO’S”). To top it off, our son now fully understood that indeed, he would have to take a sabbatical from 3 teams he is currently part of …along with managing all the questions from depressed teammates, parents and coaches. Conner diligently worked through his concerns and fears transparently before God. Yes, our virile man-child (17yrs.) was disheartened … but not for long.
God, in His loving sovereignty, quite creatively and very personally got hold of Conner and showed him the positives to this ‘hole in his ear down time’. And now Conner genuinely sees this experience as a blessing rather than a curse of some kind. (For now, without the extensive training, travel and tournament commitments, time have been freed up…freed up for things like senior year high school activities, God/quiet time, and family time. Additionally, with his alternative land workouts, he has gained much needed muscle and core strength (for playing with Stanford water polo in the fall), which he was not able to put on with his 3 team training regimen. ~~ But the best thing in all this is that Conner truly sees God’s divine hand on his life in a very personal way. Praise Him!)
~ Ok, this is an illustration for a literal hole in the physical body…how about holes in other areas of our lives? Holes like a husband leaving for another woman, a son or sister turning to substance abuse, a dear friend dying, a deep betrayal, personal sexual/verbal abuse suffered, hormonal/chemical imbalances that make real what actually is not, cancer riddled body, dementia disease, car crash survivor, abortion regrets, dysfunctional relationships,….on and on and on. What about these holes?
Again, God takes these rips in our physical bodies, holes in our personalities, tears in our relationships, and if we choose to earnestly seek and obey Him, He enlarges our heart and attends to all our needs while he works all things for good for us who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Now this is just too cool.
God bless you this week! Diligently seek Him…He is so faithful.
Much love,
Shaun and Betsy
