Dear Ones,
Happy weekend to you! We hear bad weather is coming tomorrow with rain, strong winds and snow. It is too bad since we have a funeral for a friend from church and people will be traveling. The question for you this week is: What have you learned in times of suffering, whether it is physical or emotional pain and how did you respond?
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Can we be happy when we are getting old, or have a debilitating disease? Happiness is something we have to choose, so yes, we can be happy even when we are suffering. I am reading a book by Emilie Griffin, and she lives in pain and suffers from rheumatoid arthritis. Although she watches her diet, doesn’t expose herself to anxiety-producing stress, she tries not dwell on her illness and trusts God. She chooses life as she quotes from Deut.30:19-20, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants my live, loving the Lord your God, obeying Him, and holding fast to Him; for that means life to you and length of days.” Emilie doesn’t focus on her illness but lets it go.

Emilie also learns from what others endured but didn’t give up, like painter Pierre Auguste Renoir. He got rheumatoid arthritis also when he was 57 years old after he had been painting since a child. His joints were inflamed and his hands so distorted that visitors observing couldn’t believe he could still paint. He would at times cry out in pain but when pressed by others to quit, he said, “Beauty remains but pain passes.” He never lost his love for what is beautiful and before he died, he had produced 6,000 works of beauty.

Perhaps we can all learn from examples that as we give of ourselves to others it will transcend our own pain and self-pity. I think of Johnny Ericson and how she let her wheelchair be her pulpit to speak of God’s faithfulness to her. Whatever any of us have to endure in this life is a challenge but also a response to God’s grace. Emilie wrote a poem and said in a few of her lines, “I was a bit unwell today/ But I am well in the grace of God/ Well enough to withstand/ whatever the universe is dishing up today/ and well enough to ask hard questions/ not to mention/ well enough to hold my Bible in my lap/ until the day of Resurrection.”

As we all get older and slower, and may be enduring debilitating diseases, we can ask the Lord to help us use what is left to us of life and use it wisely and well. We can learn from other grateful lives and choose happiness as we come to rest in God’s Grace. The Gallup poll showed that people get happier as they get older and satisfied with their lives. Let us all remain joyful and express joy even in the midst of what we may be suffering.

Challenge for today: Choose not to be bound by your pain but choose life and live in God’s grace to you.
Blessings on your weekend and prayers and love, Judy