Day 122

Courage for a Difficult Life

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, Cheer up, friend!
Your sins are forgiven (Matthew 9:2).

STOPPED FOR A TRAFFIC light. Crossing the road just in front of

me was a most attractive young couple. The woman was tall, blonde,
and slender, maybe 25 or 30 years old. Her hair was neatly braided.
She wore a beige blouse and slacks. They could have come from a
discount store, but she wore them as though they had come from a fashion
boutique.
The man with her was suntanned, dark-haired, and handsome. By
the look on the girls face you could sense a real bond of affection between
these two. I couldn't tell how tall the man was, because he was in a
wheelchair. She was pushing him across the street toward the low-rent
apartments.
Why was he in a wheelchair? A degenerative disease? Parkinsons
disease? A sports injury? Perhaps a car accident? I sensed from the way
they were talking and looking at each other, however, that they had come
to terms with their tough times and that they would not accept defeat. They
had found their victory in spite of what life was giving them.
Courage! Courage! Courage! Denitely a trait one with Parkinsons
needs for the daily battle that is fought to force the body to respond to your
commands, the deliberation one must develop to even live, and the
frustration one feels when things just dont work. And we cannot forget the
most valuable person(s) we depend on every day: our caregivers. Why do
they need courage, you ask? They need courage to deal with us and make
sure our medical and physical needs are met: courage to help us when we
fall, courage to be patient with us, and courage to help us not to quit and
not give up. The life of a PD person is huge, but we follow a God who is
bigger.
PRAYER: Gracious God, we thank you for people of all
ages who, refusing to be defeated by hardship or tragedy,
live in faith and hope. May we too have the courage to
learn from their stories through Jesus Christ to triumph
over difcult circumstances. Amen.

Day 187
Do We Have to Suffer?

In the world you'll have trouble. But cheer up! I have

overcome the world. (John 16:33).

NE THING WE CAN BE SURE OF is that coming into the presence

of God carrying our suffering still intact does not remove the
underlying causes of the suffering. It does not cure cancer; it does
not reunite us with loved ones who have died; and you will come up short if
you spend time looking for the answer to the deep question, why God
allows suffering. To bring it closer to home, we ask why God allows us to
suffer. The message of the cross is not that God will not shield us from
suffering, but that we can encounter God in our suffering, even as God has
encountered us in human suffering.
You can rest assured that the Lord knows our suffering. Remember
the story of the rich young man who came to ask Jesus what he needed to
do in order to have eternal life? The scripture says that Jesus loved him.
When his friend Lazarus died, he wept. And on his entrances into
]erusalem, Jesus cried because the city knew not his coming.
I am sure though that during the ordeal of his torture, he, if not
outwardly, inwardly was moved by the pain he was having to bear for his
kingdom to come. And I am equally certain that the Lord, being the loving
Father that God is, was beside Gods self to see what the Son was bearing
for the redemption of Gods sinful creation. When as sufferers we come
into Gods presence, we can learn who we are, both in our suffering and
beyond our suffering, and we can learn whom God is. God is the Christ
who suffers and the Spirit who both transcends and transforms our
suffering.
Though we do not seek suffering, we become, as our faith deepens,
increasingly sensitive to its presence in our world.
PRAYER: Father of the living and the dead, we come to
you seeking your assurance of your presence with us
during our suffering. With your help, not only will our faith
increase, but so will our sensitivity and love. Amen.