This has been a season of suffering for me. I don’t want to be melodramatic, and I yearn for both contentment and joy despite my circumstances, but physically I am in the midst of a painful season that will continue with a surgery later this month. The long term prognosis is reasonably good, and part of my perspective on it is shaped by dear friends whose pain is unlikely to go away this side of eternity.
However, as I recover from a ski crash that resulted from my foolish choices, I have been considering suffering in a new way. I think about Romans Chapter 8, a chapter I memorized in elementary school so my dad would buy me Air Jordan basketball shoes (incentives can be wisely given). In that chapter the Apostle Paul says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Yet, what did Paul know about suffering? 2 Corinthians 12 is one of the places where we can see how he suffered. Even with wars and rumors of wars, with inflation hitting our pocketbooks and ads filled with lying politicians hitting every anger producing button we possess, we’re not living under a ruler who kills Christians for entertainment. We aren’t literally “naked and starving” as he was at times. We are living in a time of unprecedented wealth and ease and it is important to remember that. Yet our suffering is deeply painful to us. The Apostle Paul is pointing us to glory. My body is going to be in a recovery mode after surgery, but even in middle age, I am aware that my body isn’t getting stronger, my eyesight isn’t getting sharper, my ears aren’t growing less hair. 2 Corinthians 4:16: “We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”
I have dear friends who are facing their death in a way that is much closer to them than mine seems to me. Despite a terminal diagnosis, how does someone live in peace and joy? They know the glory that is to come. At Wears Valley Ranch we are blessed with the incredible opportunity of caring for children that are suffering. We are able, in many ways, to bind up wounds and see God heal miraculously. We are able to see individual lives changed, and the echoes that has for entire families. We can only imagine what kind of impact it has when an abuse victim who is the child and grandchild and great-grandchild of those who are both abused and abusers is able to find freedom from that vicious cycle. When we see children who are freed from suffering, from hopelessness, from believing lies about who they are and whose they are, we rejoice. We look forward to a glorious day when we will stand in bodies that are free from pain, free from infirmity, and for eternity give glory to the One who made us, and the One who rescued and redeemed us from our sin. There is no getting out of this world alive physically, but we are immortal souls, and because of Jesus, we can live in glory forever.
When I consider eternity in the midst of suffering, I am filled with peace and joy. I pray that the same is true for you. Thank you for enabling us to share the good news that gives us access to future glory with children who desperately need to hear it.
God Bless You,
Clayton Wood
Executive Director
