“But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” – 1 Timothy 6:11 [NIV]
Trying to hold my cell phone as my cold hands pressed the button to call my son’s cell, I saw some of the night crew heading to each of their cars, ready to go home after a long Saturday night of work. One by one, the electronic gate opened and like a parade, we followed each other to get out of the staff parking.
No one answered so I knew that my son was probably downstairs, eating breakfast with his father, getting ready to go to church. I dialed our house’s number and my husband picked up.
After greeting him “Good Morning”, I asked about our son.
“Oh….He couldn’t pick up your call because he’s here in the laundry room, washing his clothes.”
Tears welled up in my eyes. As foggy as the morning mist I had to go through, I tried to steady my eyes on the road.
“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” my husband asked.
“No! These are tears of joy. The other day, when I was explaining about my schedule change at work to him, I told him, sometimes, we have to look at these changes, that they are happening, not only for me, but also for him. When the Lord is calling for us to step up and do more responsibilities for Him, the changes often hurt, but the outcome far outweighs the suffering or hurt we have to endure. If He can’t trust us with smaller things, how much more with bigger things?”
“I told him that anything he can do to help both of us around, it would be great. Not only is he helping us, but it will be a great opportunity for him to be more responsible, think about others and not of himself, and do them with great joy in his heart, to always commit them with the Lord. I’m crying because he remembered…”
As I got done
“Kristian, you’re so sweet. I just want to say thank you and I love you.”
“You’re welcome, mom. Drive safely and I’ll see you when you get home. I love you, too.”
“Thank You Lord. Thank You for these changes that hurt. They hurt because You want us to be more faithful. You want us to be more trusting in You. You want us to grow in our character. And even if we don’t know what lies ahead, You always provide with our needs. Thank You for Your love and grace.”
This time, I let the tears flowed behind the sunglasses that sheltered my eyes from the bright light peeking through the clouds from a distance. I knew I didn’t deserve anything. I was always an ordinary person but He never thought that way. He would entrust things to my hands because He always believed in me. And now that I had tasted His goodness, there was just no other response but to continually praise and thank Him for all of these opportunities of growth and bigger responsibilities. These challenges create a big change not on the outside, but from my inside. The way I will handle any trial is an opportunity of showing how a child of God can endure.
We endure not because we are strong. We become more patient not because of our own strength. It is because God sustains all those. If we can show others those God-given abilities, may it make them see God through our sufferings and changes. We are given talents not only to minister to each other but much more, we have that responsibility to always proclaim about the Truth. Because in the long run, it is not our opinions about God that will matter. He is not bound to change and adapt to how we want Him to be. [“Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow.”-Hebrews 13:8] We forget that though He loves to bless and provide a lot of things, He is also the One Who punishes sins. We look at comforting Scriptures but bypass those that are uncomfortable. We have to learn to endure amidst such pain and trials because God is calling for us to be more pure, letting go of those things that hinder our growth and relationship with God.
