Jim and I worked together back in the 90s. Jim’s son was 21 years old and married. Every January for the previous three years the son had come down with a mysterious illness that began with nausea and deteriorated to the point of hospitalization. During the prior year’s extended hospital stay, he was laid off from his job. Because his wife missed too much work dealing with his hospitalization, she too lost her job. Multiple doctors and hospitals had treated his illness. Every year at the conclusion of the hospital stay, another doctor declared that this time the malady had been cured.
Here we were in late January again; I asked Jim how he was and how his son was doing. Jim said he was ok, but his son had just been hospitalized with the same problem as before. He and his wife had no jobs and no insurance. Jim said his faith was sustaining him, but it was increasingly difficult to be optimistic. This thing with his son had become worse than a recurring nightmare.
But one recent event had encouraged Jim to be thankful that his son’s condition was not even worse. The day before, Jim had gone to the visitation for a friend’s 20-year-old son who had committed suicide. The young man had graduated from high school and was working and going to college. He was making good grades and had given no indication of a serious problem. His father said not only had he lost his son, but also he had lost his best friend. Jim asked about my son; I told him he was doing well. At the time he was not as motivated as I wanted him to be, but I considered that to be a minor concern, considering the multiple stages of trouble in the world. The matter of a son’s level of motivation is comparatively minor, while the loss of a child to suicide is indeed at the extreme end of the trouble chart.
Contemplating my conversation with Jim, I could only bow my head and thank God for my current state of comparatively minor trouble. There have been times of worse trouble during which it has been difficult, sometimes impossible, for me to give thanks. How about you? Are you giving thanks for your state of being? Are you thankful at all levels of trouble? I know from my own experience that it’s difficult at times. But God would have us to be thankful in spite of circumstances. He said, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NIV) To enable us to perform those actions, God provided a resource that is described thus by Paul: “But He said to me, ’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)
Did you get that? Paul says he will rejoice in his weaknesses so that the power of Christ may work in his life. God surely understands our emotional weakness during times of trouble. He did create us, after all. And He supplies the resources that we need to increase our thankfulness at all levels of trouble. The words of this song express that truth.
“He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater;
He giveth more strength when the labors increase.
To added affliction He addeth His mercy;
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace…
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.”