Grace and Gratitude

BadRose points me to an article by Barnie Day in the Martinsville Bulletin: "A Decade with Parkinson's Disease" -

But there a dark side to this disease. It is degenerative. It gets steadily worse. It takes me an hour of concentration to dress myself in the mornings and I usually break a sweat before I'm done. Try tying your shoes using your elbows or putting on a tie and buttoning all those buttons that shirts come with using only your feet and you will have some idea of what I'm talking about.

Enough of the macabre. Let us reverse field here. In a very real sense Parkinson's has been an epiphany for me. It has given me empathy for the plight of others, for the burdens they carry, that I never had before. It has given me an appreciation for what is truly good in my life. It has given me insight. It has brought into high relief for me the idiocy of some of the health care policies we as a nation tolerate...

Here's the thing: If you do have Parkinson's, there is a fundamental choice you must make. Will you die with it, or will you live? A stranger helped me decide the answer to that question -- and he never even knew it.

I was sitting in the drive-through line at Hardees, here in Stuart, waiting for a cup of coffee. Not in the line I was in, but off to the right, parallel to it, was a beat-up pickup and a pull-behind trailer loaded with lawnmowers and string trimmers -- and a lot of hand tools -- rakes and shovels and such. Obviously, the owner of this truck made his living doing yard work.

While I waited, he came out of the restaurant carrying his breakfast in a bag. He briskly approached the truck, reached the bag in through the open window and opened the truck door from the inside. Then he bent down and removed one of his legs. He tossed that leg into the back of the truck as one would a stick of firewood, smiled and waved at someone waiting in line behind me, hopped up into his truck and drove away.

"Howya doin'?" the girl at the window asked. (People ask me that all the time. And it's not just idle chit-chat. They really want to know how I'm doing.) She handed me the cup of coffee.

"Never better!"

"Really?"

"I mean it."

Grace under pressure. Courage under trial. Insight amid illness.

We all want to live lives of health and comfort, but "health and comfort" can often lead to sloth and self-satisfaction. When we have no challenges, no trials, it is so easy to be "at ease in Zion." It is easy to ignore the plight of others, it is easy to whine about what you want and don't have, it is normal to be unthankful for all you do have.

Do you remember what the Apostle Paul had to say about this? Paul was arguably the greatest missionary of all time. He was one of the most highly educated men of his time, the start pupil of a rabbi who is famous to this day. Paul had a grasp of theology few can match, and a zeal for God which is inspiring. His writings compose a huge percentage of the New Testament, and through them, God daily adds to His family. God used Paul in wonderful and powerful ways all of Paul's Christian life.

But Paul's life wasn't easy. Look at his testimony to the Corinthians when they doubt him:

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?--I speak as a fool--I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness-- besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

If I must boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desiring to arrest me; but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.

Paul was put through the wringer: he was persecuted at every turn. Even his brothers and sisters in Christ would unfairly criticize him! And yet, he remained faithful to His God and Saviour, and earnestly preached the faith and the grace of God.

God also blessed him beyond measure and gave him an advance view of Heaven -

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago--whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows--such a one was caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

But God also gave Paul a trial beyond his persecutions:

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

In the midst of trial and tribulations, in the midst of illness and pain, in the midst of a torment directly permitted by God, Paul learned strength. Paul learned humility. Paul learned to step aside and be a vessel of God's power, not human "power." Paul learned to "praise God in the storm" so that in Romans 8 he could write:

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What hard blessings has God placed in your life? What things do you hate that you ought to be thankful for? What opportunity has God given to you to take your eyes off of yourself, to shrug off your selfishness and self-involvement and grow into a life of grace and gratitude?

What has God done so that you stop relying on your puny strength, and trust fully in Him?

I pray that in my life God will teach me to be thankful for all His blessings, and to walk humbly before my gracious and loving Father!