I haven’t written a post in a long time. I’m making it a point from now on to write much more often. I haven’t lately mostly because most days I don’t feel well physically, and the act of doing anything at all takes all the umph I can muster. Not all days are miserable. As a matter of fact, none of them are. This is because the Grace (note the capital g) in suffering is seeing God in everything and everyone.
I don’t wear my suffering like a badge of honor, though my medical struggles are often how I’m identified. More specifically, that I survive things a lot of folks would not or have not. I don’t attribute all of the miraculous times I’ve survived to myself. I am stubborn, and have a survival instinct that runs so deep it’s almost in my bone marrow. No, I attribute these instances to God.
I heard on a Catholic podcast months ago, that Christians should live out their faiths so boldly, that other people wonder what they have that they don’t. While the Grace in my suffering is seeing God in everything and everyone, it is also others seeing God in me. For that, I am thankful. I am so ridiculously undeserving of the blessings poured out over my life, even through times of extreme hardship. All of us are. But as my Methodist Preacher Uncle, Uncle Ed, who i affectionately called Blessed Brother Woodall, said once, “You can ask me the same question a million different ways, Sister Lisa, but my answer will always be the same. He does these things because He loves us.” For that I am most thankful. Despite my lifestyle changes, my inability to do some of the things I once did so easily, looking down the road at surgery, being heartbroken or disappointed at times, etc. and so forth; He loves me inspite of myself, and none of these things that are so ugly and hard are His fault. He is my biggest cheerleader. He is all of our biggest cheerleader. For that I am thankful. For that is the reason I keep going, and see Him in everything and everyone. ❤️