It is when we suffer well that our faith is made stronger

Wednesday’s Word

She pulled out of the parking lot slowly, wanting her thoughts to follow her movement, but they were parked on the news she had just received.

​Thanks for joining us for Wednesday’s Word with Kim-Evinda and Trench Classes United. What do you do when you get bad news? Do you park your thoughts on the news or move them to a solution? Today, may you be encouraged to move them towards a solution.

She looked down at the ringing phone, and recognized the number immediately. Her heart skipped a beat, not sure if it would be good news or bad news. She almost let it go to voicemail but then thought better of it. She answered with the hopes that the news from the second mammogram would be good news.

​“Hey, Renee, what’s the verdict?”
“Have you talked with Dr. Mehta?”
“No, why?” The fear was mounting.
“Well,” she began, “we need to bring you in for a biopsy.”

She didn’t even pretend to be strong, or keep her cries silent. The sobs that came were a culmination of other things that had happened in the recent past, and once they started, there was no holding them back.

​Renee let her cry and comforted her with words of encouragement, assuring her that it would be benign like last time. She went on to explain she would be doing the biopsy and she was going to make sure it went smoother than the one before; that she was going to lie her down instead of having her sit up…and on and on and on.

They scheduled the biopsy, and she tried to bring some humor into the situation. Renee laughed at her comment about making the right even with the left, and leaving her even more itty-bitty.

The rest of the explanation and directions faded to the background. “After hanging up, reality collided with her present and all she wanted to do was quit. “Just one more thing,” she cried out to God in the stillness of her car. That thought ushered in another truth from a conversation earlier in the week with a mentor wherein they both agreed that we often take out of context the scripture in 1st Corinthians 10:13 where Paul talks about God not giving us more than we can bear…which has to do with temptation, not trials!

But that can become murky ground when the temptation to give up during a trial becomes our focus instead of focusing on what to learn in the trial. The truth is that there is a sort of suffering that goes along with loving and following after Christ, not in a sadistic sort of way, but a suffering that permits God to cut away, refine, purify in the midst of a hardship and any unexplainable trial, even those caused by others choices. It is when we suffer well that our faith is made stronger for to die in the flesh is to walk in and by the Spirit.

Thoughtfully,
Kim-Evinda

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