Tag: HOW TO ENDURE

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WHEN ALL YOU HAVE LEFT IS GOD

Two days before Thanksgiving, 2025, marked the beginning of Bill’s first hospitalization. Since then, we have experienced the full hospitality of LGH four more times. Often, I feel like I’m trying to run a marathon over a sea of mud. Our landscape of normal has greatly altered. Normal connections I had with our local church have suffered. If you attend a really large church and miss a lot of services (even though it is because of illness), it is easy for others to assume you began attending another of the multiple services. I miss people.

LOSING MY NORMAL

Another part of my identity was based on the women I help mentor spiritually. My schedule for that went up in flames due to the extended periods I spent at the hospital with Bill. Then there was my part-time substitute teaching. My subbing gigs greatly decreased as my calendar bounced back and forth week after week. Worst of all, my sacred space with God was pushed further and further to the side as I struggled with my new companion of constant exhaustion. What do you do when you feel like every day is a new day, but a lot of days you highly wish you never had to endure?

JEREMIAH AND THE PIT

Read Jeremiah 38:1-28. Have you ever thought about how Jeremiah felt when he was thrown into that slimy, stinking mud at the bottom of the cistern?  Leading up to this, Jeremiah didn’t experience a winning season. As a preacher, he faced an audience that not only didn’t pay any attention to his message, but also falsely accused him of being a turncoat. He was beaten, imprisoned in a dungeon for a lengthy period, given a brief reprieve, and finally thrown into that terrible cistern.  The narrative tells us that he was so mired in the mud that it took thirty men pulling on ropes to lift him out of that pit. What do you do when you feel like every day is a new day, but a lot of days you highly wish you never had to endure?

WHEN THE DARKNESS SEEMS OVERWHELMING

What did Jeremiah find in that dark cistern?  What happens when all you can hear is the dripping of water, and help seems galaxies away?  Since last November, we have gone through numerous incorrect diagnoses, innumerable lab work, painful tests, and days when we thought Bill was approaching heaven at lightning speed. The encroaching darkness has felt overwhelming.

WHERE TO RUN

What do you do when you feel like every day is a new day, but a lot of days you highly wish you never had to endure? You fling yourself into the arms of Jesus. This is not a Hail Mary. This is running to the only One Who has, and can sustain you in the days to come. I run to the God of Eternity.

THE FORTRESS IN THE MIDST OF THE BATTLE

Psalm 46:1-7 paints a picture of a world in which the mountains are quaking, seas are surging, and earth is giving way.  Everything that previously could be depended on has fallen away.  Yet, verse seven says, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”  It is one thing to consider God as with us. It is quite another to consider God as actually being our fortress. 

What did Jeremiah discover in that dark cistern?  What do you do when you feel like every day is a new day, but a lot of days you highly wish you never had to endure? What happens when much of what you depend on has flown the coop? 

HE IS ENOUGH!

When everything is taken away, and all that is left is God, God is enough.  Ask God to open your eyes to His fortress of love. To the praise of His glory!

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ALL THAT IS LEFT

IMAGE OF NORTHERN LIGHTS

Loraine had a wonderful heart for people. If she saw someone being mistreated, she was a tigress, a warrior for Jesus Christ. Thus, it came as quite a shock to hear her cancer diagnosis. The cycle began: surgery, chemo, radiation, and more chemo. Her beautiful red hair fell out and her skin became a patchwork of rashes. Always strong physically, she found herself imprisoned in a sick and broken body. Loraine endured. That final summer of her illness we discussed the question: “What happens, when all that’s left, is God?”

THE BLAME GAME

If you want a happy read, don’t read the Book of Job. He loses his family, wealth, marriage, reputation, and health. Furthermore, his “friends” bombard him with accusations, saying that everything must be Job’s fault. He must be a huge sinner that his life has turned out this way. A misguided friend counseled Loraine that she was not healed because she “didn’t have enough faith.” Like Job’s friends, it put salt on Loraine’s open wounds.

CLINGING BY A THREAD

What happens when everyone seems to have abandoned you; when all that’s left, is God? During the final weeks of life, Loraine found her sight deteriorating because the cancer had spread to her brain.  The encroaching darkness was frightening.  Bewildered, Job endured an unimaginable prison of pain. Both Loraine and Job endeavored to endure, but clung by a thread.

LOOK UP

In Job 38-41, God finally answers Job out of the storm. He poses a series of questions to Job: “Can you bind the chains of [the cluster of stars called] Pleiades, Or loose the cords of [the constellation] Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide [the stars of] the Bear with her sons? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens, Or [can you] establish their rule over the earth?” (Job 38:31-33)

God says, “Look up. Remember Who I am.”

GOD IS STILL GOD

In the midst of our worst fears, God is still God. “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! ‘Be still and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.’ The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress” (Psalm 46).

HE IS ENOUGH

What do you do when everything else is gone, when everything you depend on has flown the coop? How do you endure? Run to the One, “Who is wise enough to count all the clouds. Who can tilt the water jars of heaven when the parched ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods.” God is enough because of His character. God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

Look up and endure.