When Blessings Hurt

It was just over two years ago that I first heard the diagnosis. 

Those dreaded words, “It’s cancer,” come with such gut-wrenching, life-changing force – like a dark curtain suddenly drawn that shuts out a sunny spring day vista.  Whatever the eventual outcome, you know that life will be different from then on and wonder just how much of a future you have.  Yet, through all that has happened to me since that day, I have found God’s grace and compassion to have been more than abundant.

The familiar verse, Romans 8:28, that promises that God is working all things together for good for those who love Him, sounds like a blessing, right?  Sure, and I am grateful that that verse taught me to yield control of my life to Christ many years ago at a time of great mental and psychological trial for me.  But when I realized the good that He purposes to bring out of our trials and sufferings, I began to understand why reaching the blessings may – no – must sometimes hurt. 

His purpose for the “all things,” stated very clearly in the next verse, requires a process.  Like surgery to remove diseased tissue and implants to restore dysfunctional parts, there is pain, discomfort and stressful rehabilitation work involved.  Since His goal is to conform us to the image of His Son, which for most of us means major changes, some of the process will be severely painful. 

Even the Apostle Paul was continually plagued by a “thorn in the flesh” that God chose not to remove.  Paul’s conclusion was that God’s grace was sufficient for Him.  He accepted his affliction as God’s means to keep him from being boastful, realizing that his own weakness gave him the opportunity to humbly depend on God’s strength instead of his own (2 Corinthians 12:7-12).  In another letter where he was in prison and in chains, he wrote that he had learned how to be content in whatever situation he found himself (Philippians 4:11-12).  Now that’s a blessing!

Typically, when we think of blessings or wish God to bless someone, we visualize life going along smoothly, having good health, good things, a good family, success on the job, at school and in personal endeavors.  True, these are desirable and a form of blessing, but they are, at best, external things that do not last.  How much better blessings are the treasures we can lay up in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20) that aren’t subject to destruction and theft, like a godly character, good works and knowing God intimately.  These are eternal things.

Jesus taught about special blessings that accrue to those who by the world’s standards are not considered blessed at all.  For example, those who suffer persecution, character assassination and slander because they do what is right and openly live for Jesus will receive great reward in heaven.  Notice that the blessing here, as in other cases, is not in the hurt but what results from faithfully passing through the hurt (Matthew 5:2-12).

What, then, ought our attitude be toward hurts when they come our way?  Look for the blessings!  We may not always see them.  (God is reserving some things to reveal to us in heaven.)  In the meantime, He may desire us to learn greater trust in His wisdom, goodness and deliverance through our adversities.  As the Scriptures teach us in James 1:2-4, “Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.”  Yes, “count” it among the “treasures” laid up against your eternal-values “investment account” in heaven. 

Although trials are not joyful now, we have a sure hope of future joy waiting to be realized.  But that's not all, if we truly trust God, then we will be thankful even in the midst of our trials because we know He is using them for our good (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

As I look back over the dark days of November 2011 and the past two years of my slow journey to regain strength and overcome shortness of breath, I realize already so many blessings that have come to me.  But the greatest of these has been to bring my family closer together more than anything else in the past and, especially for me, a greater intimacy with Jesus.  To God be the glory!