Making You More Resistant
I do not want to bore you to death with disaster stories, but, hey, that’s what I’m living right now. And, when you write, you write what is on your mind.
As you well know, two weeks and one day after our house burned to the ground, I broke my left arm. Most of you who know me, when you first saw me, just shook your head and said, “What’s the boy gone and done now?” It’s just another in a long line of injuries that many have witnessed over the last twenty years.
I was on the tractor bush hogging a spot down by the pond where I wanted to put the new house. It was a great spot to build and would almost be like living on the lake. I dreamed of sitting on the front porch, gazing at the water in the gentle quietness of the mornings as the sun made its debut. What a way to live!
Anyway, I was tooting along on the tractor in the tall brush and hit a stump with my right front wheel, causing my steering wheel to spin around vigorously several times. I have what many call a suicide knob on the steering wheel to assist in making quick turns and spin arounds. The steering wheel spun clockwise several times around, striking my left arm at the joint of my wrist… and yes… it really hurt. That was on Saturday. I didn’t really think it was broken so I did not go to the doctor right away. If I went to the doctor every time I got a cut or took a lick, I would just have to move a bed there and take up residence.
OK ,that was Saturday. By Monday that thing was really hurting. Miss Nita had been telling me that I needed to go to the doctor, but what does she know? After all, she is only a nurse. So I went, and yes, it was broken. I went to the emergency room, they took pictures and put it into a soft cast. Two days later I went to the orthopedic doctor and he informed me that it was broken in fives places, three on the arm and two in the joint. He put this dumb cast on my arm and if you could see me try to type right now you would laugh. The doc said, “Did they give you anything for pain when you were in the ER Monday?” I replied, “Yes but I didn’t have it filled.” He looked up at me and asked, “Well, don’t it hurt?” I said, “Yes sir, but after I experienced the pain I had with the burns a few years ago, this is not even pain.” He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Hum!”
You see, things that happen to you make you more resistant. The previous pain I endured made this seem like nothing. That pain was horrible… this is now only a nuisance. Does it hurt, you ask? You bet, but it is only relative. And, isn’t it true that the events of our past can actually make the events of the present more tolerable? None of us want bad things to happen to us. We really don’t sit around and ask for them, but they sometimes come anyway. God knows what we can take. He knows our limits. And, from time to time He allows us to go through things to keep up our resistance. When you think of it, it is a great compliment. He knows we won’t crater. By allowing what He could stop, He is saying, “Son, I believe in you!” So, as James would say, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
Those things that happen to us make us more resistant to future events. It may be pain, but it is not as bad as it has been. If I could endure that, I believe I could endure anything. God allows the opportunity to actually view the progress He has made in us from time to time. It is much like a report card. The question is, am I passing or failing?
The more we endure without self pity, the more resistant we will become. God knows what He is doing.