My claims to suffering are rather small compared to so many other people.

For the last several weeks I have been reading a few pages, most every day, from C. J. Mahaney's Humility: True Greatness. The current chapter has been on Habakkuk, the Old Testament prophet. As Mahaney concluded the chapter he inserted a section on anger, in which he related a conservation his sister had with another relative. The setting, of which was, the sister's living room, in which was her husband, awaiting death from a fast growing brain tumor, the sister and the relative. Below is the conversation as related by C. J. Mahaney.

“On one occasion, a relative of Dave was visiting, a man who was not a Christian. As he watched Sharon caring for Dave and thought about Dave's relative youth and the children he would leave behind, anger seemed to well up from within him-anger directed at the God whom Dave and Sharon were professing to believe in.

He asked Sharon, 'Why aren't you angry?'

She turned to him and answered with the truth of the gospel: 'Dave deserved hell for his sins, just like you and me, and yet God, in His mercy, forgave him because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Dave is going to heaven,” she said. “How could I be angry at God for taking him to heaven?'”

Pastors in small towns and rural villages get sick. I have had a cold that has laid me pretty low for a week or more now. This morning is Labor Day. I sit in my office trying to accomplish a few things but my sinuses are distracting me: they feel like a little more pressure could cause them to explode. The pressure from my glasses on my nose and across my temples is noticeable, and may easily be described as “more than annoying”.

Okay, I have been afflicted with the cold in a 'serious' way for a little over a week. It is time for it to move on - I did try giving it away yesterday but no one would take it! It is time for God to make me all better now that I have experienced the weaknesses and frailties of my flesh. I'm ready to be energetic and strong again.

But suppose, in God's will, I stuff from sinus problems for the rest of my life? Suppose, that every morning, I have to fight the desire to just close my eyes and hope it all goes away, instead of forcing myself to think, to concentrate on a task. Yes, I know that I am revealing how pathetic I really am. Others have faced difficulties every day and somehow march on.

The point of all of this is: would I find God's grace to be sufficient in the face of difficulties of various sizes and shapes that I might be facing? Would I rise up to live the life that I have been called to live trusting the Lord for strength or trusting in my own strength? Would I be content and happy with what God was enabling me to accomplish, or would I say, “God, I could do so much more, if I were health!”?

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 of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2Co 12:9 ESV)