Pain, Growth, and Hope

My baby is learning to crawl. 

And that's putting it simply. He's trying to crawl, stand, walk, climb– whatever he can to catch up with his siblings.

My main job right now is to make sure he doesn't hurt himself… too much.

Because, though I hate to say it, part of growing involves pain. If the baby's legs are to grow stronger, he will need to stand, and fall, and get back up again. He will have days and months of frustration. Then, eventually, he will figure out how to walk, but only after many tries, and many tears.

As I watch him go through this process, I sympathize. I am going through my own period of frustration and growth. Though I am not dealing with any major physical ailments, I feel the heavy burden and weariness from learning to care for seven children while juggling work, ministry, marriage, and my personal pursuits. I long for a time when "normal" equals to quiet, ease and simplicity, when I don't feel stretched to the point of breaking, when I  no longer feel so uncertain of myself. There are days when I want to crawl under my blankets and ignore the demands. There are days when I feel that I am hopelessly and forever yelling at my children over insignificant things. There are days when I feel lonely. Some days my body aches, but mostly, it's my heart that hurts.

But in order to grow, sometimes we must go through pain. Paul writes in his letter to the Roman church,

Therefore, since we have been justified, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

Pain does have a purpose. I don't mean to sound whiny (I would hardly call this "suffering" that I am going through), but I do know that God does mean to refine me (like gold) and prune me (like a tree). And some of you are going through great physical, emotional, or spiritual pain right now. Hold onto the "hope [that] does not put us to shame", and be strong and courageous in the Lord.

My friend is fighting cancer. His wife and six children are fighting it with him. The pain is at times unendurable. The days are long, and the nights even longer. We don't know when the end will come, but we know that God is the author of this story, and this is a story of Hope.