I have to keep breathing... For tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide will bring? -Tom Hanks, Castaway
The question eventually comes up in conversation, so Iʼll just cut to the chase. Believe what you will, but my belief set doesnʼt subscribe to the idea that this experience was or is Godʼs plan. I just donʼt see it. End of story.
But Chad, if good things can come out of suffering, doesn't that make suffering good? Make no mistake, good CAN come from suffering, but not the act of suffering itself. The ʻgoodʼ that comes it directly hinges on our response to our suffering. Suffering is like a pile of rocks. You can choose to carry the load, throw them at someone, just let it lay there, or you can build an altar. The benefit comes when we take an unfortunate – or tragic beyond words - experience and make something good come from it. To find a hope in the gloom. Still, finding the hope doesnʼt change the fact that the situation is flat out heinous.
Itʼs been exactly four weeks to the day since the surgery. My brain is racked when I think about the events the last four weeks have brought. Itʼs incomprehensible, yet here I am. And I canʼt escape that reality. Truth be told, I think most people stop right there. They get stuck on the reality, and lessons arenʼt learned. There is no hope found. Souls that have been beaten down stay down. If you know the Prayer of Serenity, youʼll find an amazing truth hidden in the second half of it:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will;
That I may be REASONABLY happy in this life and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen.
This life wonʼt be void of pain. In fact God promises the opposite – “In this life you will....”
I have accepted this. I wake up in the morning to realityʼs frigid welcome. So I greet it, take a deep breath, and continue building my trail of altars. You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering. – Henri-Frederic Amiel