5 results for tag: The Gift of Suffering

The Gift of Intimacy with Christ

“Oh, this thing of keeping in constant touch with God, of making Him the object of my thoughts and the companion of my conversations, is the most amazing thing I ever ran across. Now I like the Lord’s presence so much that when for a half hour or so He slips out of my mind—as He does many times a day—I feel as thought I had deserted Him, and as though I had lost something very precious in my life.” -Frank Laubach I stumbled across this quote the other day and was reminded of how incompletely I know God and the fullness of His presence. I want it to be so clearly evident in my life that I know God. I yearn for my knowledge of God to be ...

The Gift of Greater Witness

In Philippians 1:12-14, Paul talks about the joy of being imprisoned. He wasn’t joyous about his imprisonment. He was joyous because his imprisonment helped him spread the good news of Jesus’ salvation and encouraged fellow Christ followers to do the same. I never wanted to be imprisoned in the jail of grief after losing my son. No one does. I think of Paul in a dark, damp jail cell sharing how God is good, faithful and always with him. The jailers and other prisoners didn’t think he was crazy. They believed Jesus was the salvation of the world. He shared and they believed. After losing my son, I had a choice about whether to succumb to the ...

The Gift of Deeper Community

I’ve received many gifts as a result of my suffering, but I can attest that the deeper community I’ve experienced because of it is high on the list. As a reminder, I read my original story of losing Anna posted by Hope Mommies in 2018. One of the highlights even then was how the church around me truly changed me and ushered me into a new world of deeper community. A community who carried me through my grief, learned what biblical joy and lament truly means, and provided practically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually for me for years. Because of the support I received, I am able to be there for the women who come after me. The sister of ...

The Gift of Endurance

It wasn’t until many days after the burial of my son that I began to feel the deep grief and suffering. Things had moved too fast up to that point to process the magnitude of what had just occurred. One day, we learned our son had passed away. A few days later he was born, and a few days after that we honored his life with a small graveside service. Yet, when the phone stopped dinging and the casseroles stopped appearing, and I could finally well, just stop, it was then that the heaviness of our loss was truly felt, really felt for the first time. The dictionary describes suffering as the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. Pain? ...

The Gift of Eternal Perspective

Most of the time people are happy enough to ignore death. They may feel it as a looming elephant in the room, but never talk about it. Our culture encourages us to make the most of this life, but doesn’t much care to address the fact that it ends. Suffering, on the other hand, has a way of clearing everything else out of the room. When you are suffering, especially in the face of grief, you are forced to stare right at death. When my daughter, Ginny, was stillborn at 35 weeks, death was in my womb. And then death was placed in my arms. My dreams and plans were replaced with death. There were moments I felt I might just drown in death. There was no ...