Choose Joy Even In Pain
O my Strength, to you I sing praises, for you, O God, are my refuge, the God who shows me unfailing love. -- Psalm 59:17
Some days are just hard. And so is the next day and the next. Because life isn’t all about the mountain tops. It’s got a lot of valleys in between.
Our neighbor is in a Birmingham hospital. She desperately needs a liver transplant but right now she is just too weak to survive the surgery -- even if a liver was available. How a woman who never drank got cirrhosis of the liver is anybody’s guess. It’s just one of those unexplained things. That doesn’t ease the pain for those who love her.
A dear friend is also in Birmingham. She is seeing a cancer specialist, hoping and praying for a miracle. The doctors here believe she has stage 3 colon cancer. She doesn’t feel sick. She doesn’t look sick. She clings to God’s peace as she waits for answers.
Another friend nurses her sick child, as she cares for an older child with a major illness. Another sweet friend agonizes as she and her husband wait to be matched with children they pray they’ll one day adopt.
Yesterday some folks were just driving down the road when someone else made a bad decision. Two were life-flighted to an area hospital. A little boy was taken 200 miles in the opposite direction to a different hospital. Definitely not how they’d planned their day.
I could go on and on. I’m really not trying to bring you down but rather to point out that there is joy amidst the pain and struggled. Sometimes it isn’t easy to find. Some days it seems nonexistent.
A wonderful woman is fighting a losing battle against cancer. Anyone would understand if she chose to spend her days with family and close friends. It would seem right if she decided to live fulfilling her own wishes and desires. Instead, she feels God has called her to prison ministry. She spends her time -- when she’s able -- ministering to those most of society shun.
Another woman recently found out she’s in remission from an incurable cancer. That’s the good news. The bad news is that she’ll have to take the chemo drugs that make her so tired and sick for the rest of her life. She loudly praises God for healing and strength to make it this far. Blessings in a long, difficult battle.
We all make choices each day. We can choose to see the good, to feel His strength, to think of others while still in the midst of our pain. Or we can wallow in self-pity and remain where we are. Which choice will you make today?
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