Kindle Notes & Highlights
And the problem with living in a rich, free country is that we can live under the illusion that we can actually keep suffering at bay. I don’t like cold so I turn up the heat in my house. I don’t like the feeling of hunger so I run out to a fast food restaurant. I don’t like feeling alone so I power up my computer, or turn up the volume on my flat screen TV. We are a cushioned society in many ways. It’s why suffering seems like such a shock to our systems; it feels like a personal affront to the comfort we have come to assume we deserve. Why else would I think that I have the right to
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Wisdom!
This is what I want: not just the ability to endure or to be patient, but to have great endurance and great patience. Life is very difficult and only great endurance and patience will suffice.
First, healing is a gift from God. I can’t demand a gift, otherwise it is no longer a gift, but an obligation. I can’t expect a gift either or the same is true. Healing is just one of the many gifts that God has given me. If I complain that He has not given me the gift I want, and ignore all the other gifts I have received, what does that say about me? Love is not about getting something from someone. Love is about “the someone”…period.
There will come a day, thanks to the grace and kindness of God, when I will stand on the threshold of eternity in heaven. I imagine that in that moment I will look down the endless road of peace and joy that stretches out before me. Then, I will glance back at my life here on earth, a blip in comparison, and I will think, “Since this eternal joy is my future, I know I could have suffered more, and with a better attitude, during my life.
