Now I'm not a whine baby but it all seemed to come at one time. First, the chest cold accompanied by loss of voice (I was the only one complaining about that!). Then came the visit to the dermatologist. Then the back. . . oh my aching back! Chiropractor, heating pad, no golf etc., etc. Did I mention NO GOLF?
About this same time a close friend went in for major surgery. My stuff became pretty small and I rediscovered gratitude for overall good health. My friend's faith in his hour of affliction was inspirational. Sometimes perspective needs tweaking.
We can get pretty wimpy about how tough it is to be a faithful follower of Jesus these days too; what with all the temptations and modern-day anti-Christian bias (I heard someone say that recently) along with other reasons we can give for anemic witness. I don't know if Paul was dealing with spiritual whine babies or not but in Hebrews 11 he recalls for us what the ancient heroes of the faith went through. Then in chapter 12 he reminds us how really tough Jesus had it and urges us to "consider him . . .so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." Then he cuts to the chase: "In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood." (Hebrews 12:4).
We don't know what 'tough' is when it comes to following Jesus and living for God. There are multitudes of Christian brothers and sisters around the world who do. We need to get real, be willing to take it on the chin if necessary, pray for those hurting fellow believers, and give thanks for the grace we've received. Sometimes a good perspective tweaking can be a helpful thing.
1 comment:
Thank you for your thoughts Brother. There are indeed many folks who face many more difficulties than most of us do in their everyday lives. I have been trying to remember that when I'm feeling "whiney" about things. You have reinforced my resolve to be more positive when the road gets a little bumpy.
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