The wonderful thing about being a child is the ability to
go through problems and remember only the good times. I know that as a
child I was sick a lot, but I don't really remember that part so much as the comfort I felt lying with my eyes closed and listening to my family talk with each other.
When I say a lot, I don't mean I had some
persistent disease, but I had chronic strep throat that would have me
throwing up and extremely weak about a week every few months at first,
and then once a month by the time I turned twelve. It was then that the
doctor said I needed my tonsils out if I was ever to get past it. They
got most of the tonsils, but left little tags that grew back over the
years. At 28 I was back in the hospital having them removed a second
time as the chronic strep returned with them.
I know I went through all this and even remember one of
them. Momma always took me to Nana's when I'd get sick. She knew that
somehow it made me feel better. That particular day she asked if I
wanted to go. I said yes, but when we got in the car and it started
moving, I wished I'd said no, but wasn't going to tell Momma. She
wanted to help, so I was going to let her. It was this time that my uncle came in to me, as he always did, and asked, "How you doing
kiddo?" I couldn't even answer because my throat was so swollen and I
might throw up. I just looked at him with that face kids make when they
want to answer but can't. He got down eye level with me and said,
"Don't worry. This too soon shall pass." Then he smiled, patted me and
went back to whatever he needed to be doing.
Those words have stayed with me all my life. I doubt my uncle knew how extremely important it was for him to say those words at
that moment in time, but I am glad he didn't shrug them off as being
insignificant and let them go unsaid. Every time I have faced a crisis,
pain, anger, hurt, frustration, fear, etc., those words have come back
to me. Labor in childbirth has taught me a valuable lesson. Suffering brings reward - eventually.
3 Not only so, but we[a] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5 I realize that suffering sometimes lingers a lifetime and so the words Uncle Danny spoke that have been so meaningful in my life may not have the same effect on someone else who has struggled a lifetime. However, perhaps they can help a little if we simply remember that compared to eternity, this life is but a breath.
I know I am extremely imperfect, but I pray that no matter what comes my way I will not only remember these words, but those of the poem that ends this chapter:
This cardboard box Lord. See it says, "Bursting Limit 100 lbs. per square inch.
The box maker knew how much strain the box would take, what weight would crush it.
You are wiser than the box maker maker of my spirit, my mind, my body.
Does the box know when pressure increases close to the limit? No.
It knows nothing. But I know when my breaking point is near.
And so I pray, Maker of my soul, Determiner of the pressure within upon me,
Stop it lest I be broken or else change the pressure rating of this fragile container
of Your grace so that I may bear more.
Joseph Bayly
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