Suffering and Hope

  I've been pondering suffering and its connection to so many good things like character building and hope for a few days now. Like the marrying of different and opposite flavors combined to form one exquisite taste, these two different and opposite states of being combine to form one divine and exquisite result. The end of a recipe that combines the tastes of sweet and sour brings delight to the taste buds and a life that combines suffering with patience and perseverance builds a persons character and brings forth hope. The best example I can think of I can draw from my own life experience. For 6 years my husband and I tried to conceive a child. I suffered physically through fertility treatments and painful surgeries and we suffered emotionally as month by month passed with negative results. The joys of friends and family having children turned to tears of empty sadness for my husband and I. We tried to be patient and flooded heaven with prayers for a child of our own. As each year passed a gentle strength began to grow in out hearts, the value and appreciation we placed on having a family increased exponentially as time marched on and fewer tears were shed as the meaning of Gods grace became more evident. One day the suffering seemed to have been replaced with acceptance of "whatever" Gods plan was for my life, A thankfulness for the blessings God had already given me replaced the empty want and peace and joy flowed into the dry cracks of my broken heart. New life flowed into my soul and I spent months basking in the warmth of the fathers love and enjoying a peace I hadn't known in quite some time and then without any effort or planning at all God placed a new life in my womb. The gift was a complete surprise. A miracle from heaven, neither earned nor   deserved but a gift of mercy and like salvation, a complete gift of grace from God. Our beautiful daughter "Hope" was born December 2nd, 1997. We were able to put her under the Christmas tree that year and celebrate the gift of "Hope" as well as the gift of Gods son, Jesus that year and every year since. Hope did come from suffering just as Gods word proclaimed in Romans 5:3. Hope continues to show he daddy and I the love of God. She is truly a child of promise and has a great ability to Love and bring hope to others as well. I have no doubt that Hope came in Gods perfect timing and had we not gone through 6 years of suffering we would not have been ready to take the responsibility of raising her in the strength and admonition of the Lord.

Taking a dramatic pause to look at effect

Tonight we watched one of those dramatic British biographical literary films spotlighting the life of a prominent historical figure of the days of old. For some reason I am drawn to that type of movie, much to my husbands dismay but in his love for me he selfishly struggles through with as few sarcastic comments as humanly possible and enduring my steely glances upon their untimely release. Tonight's feature film, "Bright Star" about the 3 year romance between 19th century romantic poet John Keats (who died tragically at age 25) and his great love and muse, Fanny Brawne. Much of the story having been inspired by Keats's poetry and the actual love letters the pair exchanged. I admit my reason for wanting to watch the movie in the first place tied back to the memories of seeing the actual graves of the famous poets John Keats and Percy Shelley at the protestant cemetery in Rome, Italy on Matthias and my honeymoon in 1991. Watching this tragic tale made me curious about the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say. I looked it up on Wikipedia and the tale was indeed a tragic one. The mans entire life was a testament to the saying, "To be hurt deeply is to be given the ability to Love deeply". Ive often questioned how suffering could lead to hope as spoken of in the Bible (Romans 5:3-4 Not only so, but we [fn] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;perseverance, character; and character, hope.) John Keats suffered the premature death of many of his loved ones, rejection and ridicule of his poetic talents by those he looked up to, poverty and continual financial struggle that kept him from being able to marry or support the love of his life, and all the while suffering the chronic pain, weakness and eventual death brought on by having contracted tuberculosis (called consumption in the early 1800's)from nursing his 2 older brothers who also died penniless of the same disease. To add insult to injury "consumption was not identified as a single disease until 1820^[22] and there was considerable stigma attached to the infection—often being associated with weakness, repressed sexual passion or masturbation. We can safely say that John Keats had the suffering thing down and his remarkable poetry as well as the way he was able to pen the feelings of his heart in his romantic letters to Fanny Braune testifies to his deep understanding of hope and love. Clearly the connection between suffering and hope are indisputable! This being true, the opposite would also be true, the lack of suffering leads to hopelessness. That's a VERY sobering thought indeed!