Strength to Endure

My mother is the source of my physical grace and athletic abilities. Mom and I were both blessed with the “slip and fall” gene. When I was in college, Mom and Dad started a janitorial business. Mom’s favorite job was waxing floors. She loved using the buffer; she loved how the floors shined after they were done. One day while waxing the floors in Slidell at the Hibernia Bank, Mom slipped on the wet wax and fell. She hit her head and dented the buffer, but that was minor compared to what she did to her back. Unknowingly, my mother had ruptured a disk in her back. After being in pain for several weeks, the doctors did tests and the ruptured disk. The solution was to remove the disk surgically. The surgery, recovery and therapy were marginally successful and several years later her surgeon suggested that a spinal fusion would be the solution. These were dark times for our family. Mom suffered a deep depression from the medication and pain that she suffered. On many occasions, Mom said that she had done everything she wanted to accomplish in life and was ready to die. The hardest prayer I ever prayed was that if God wasn’t going to heal my mom, please take her. God healed Mom and she is a vibrant 69 year old now. She has a grand daughter, who keeps her active. When I think of the person Mom was ten years ago and who she is now, I am amazed at the transformation.

Often in the Christian life, we expect that once we are saved suffering ends. This isn’t true. The Bible is filled with Godly men and women who suffered. The Bible gives us these examples to teach us how to handle suffering. Our greatest example comes from the life of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. On the cross, Jesus pled to His Father in Heaven, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). The Savior of the world was left alone by His Father to experience suffering. Of His own free will and choice, Christ became the Atonement for our sins. Jesus knew who He was—the Son of God. He knew His purpose—to become our Atonement for sub. His vision was eternal—“to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).
My prayer for you today, is that God will give you the strength to endure your suffering and the grace to overcome it! God Bless you.