Faithfully yours - The power of God’s grace – part two
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- Published on Saturday, March 12, 2016
By Neil Strohschein
The Neepawa Banner
King Solomon put it this way: “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” (Proverbs 27:1)
That is another way of saying that life gives us few guarantees. What we have today can be taken from us in an instant.
A traffic accident can result in serious injury or even death for us or for someone we love. A heart attack, a stroke, a diagnosis of cancer, or the news that someone has been afflicted with one of many different forms of dementia can change how we view life and living overnight. There is only one thing in life about which we can be absolutely certain and that is that none of us will get out of it alive. If that shocks you, sorry. It’s a fact, as we all know.
As we journey from birth to death, each of us will face different challenges. Some (far fewer than we think) will be thanks to the actions of others. Many will be thanks to our own actions—words inappropriately spoken, mistakes made, poor judgments, risks taken that should not have been taken, etc. Most of our challenges will just happen. They are no one’s fault. No one is to blame. They could not be anticipated or avoided. They just happened.
No one understood this better than St. Paul. We honor him as a pioneer missionary, a planter of churches, a prolific writer and a passionate defender of the gospel of grace. What we don’t fully appreciate is the personal price he paid to fulfill his calling. In fact, Paul himself says very little about it. He only lists his sufferings once (in 2 Corinthians 11 and 12) and even then, he doesn’t go into detail or complain excessively, he just shares the facts as they are.
He does, however, go into great detail when he speaks of the power made available to him that helped him cope with the challenges he faced. “On three occasions,” he said, “my pain was so intense that I asked God to take it away from me. He replied: ‘My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is revealed in your weakness.’” (2 Corinthians 12:8-9)
How is God’s power revealed when we suffer health problems, lose a job, surrender to a broken marriage or must suddenly begin to care for a partner, parent or child who has become critically or (God forbid) terminally ill? St. Paul’s answer would go something like this: “It gives us the strength to adapt and adjust to the new realities of life.”
We learn to let the dreams we had of a long and healthy life die. Instead of living so many days, weeks, months and years in advance, we learn to live one day at a time. We learn to be thankful for every blessing, even if it’s a small one. We learn to give of ourselves, to do the things that need to be done around the house and for the family without grumbling, complaining or sighing so loudly that everyone (including the dog) knows how frustrated we are. We learn to accept interruptions and disruptions because they will happen every day. Most importantly, we learn to live each day as though it is our last, because we know that one day (maybe today) it will be.
Making these changes will not be easy. Our faith will be severely tested. But God is with us and he will give us the strength we need to adapt to anything life sends us.
