Straining At the Bootstraps

Do you ever feel that if you try any harder to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, those darn straps are going to break, give way, and send you sailing across the floor?

Perhaps there is a better way.  Perhaps there are other answers, not necessarily solutions, but answers that we need to hear.

I have been fascinated with the illuminating scripture in Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.  He discusses the reality of a thorn in his flesh, which he has come to believe is there for a reason because although he has approached the Lord numerous times to remove it, it continues to beseige him, frustrate him, challenge him....humble him.

Ah.  So maybe that is why we all have challenges that we struggle with.  Is it possible our loving Heavenly Father thinks we may need to be humbled?  Maybe we really aren't as invincible as we think we are.  Maybe there are still a few things we need to learn.  Maybe the Lord is saying to us, as He said to Paul: 'No, Paul, you need this weakness to remind you every day that you rely on me' (2 Cor. 12:7-9).

Through what I believe was divine intervention, a couple of weeks ago I came across a talk given at the 2002 BYU Women's Conference by Stephen E. Robinson. Seldom has a message been driven home on such a personal level.  Maybe there are others that needed to hear this, but I truly think the Lord wanted me, alone, to hear it. Otherwise how could the words have struck such a chord with me?

He reminded me that longsuffering is a virtue.  He reminded me that just as we cannot fast and pray and study to heal a broken leg, neither can we always fast or pray or study to correct very real chemical imbalances and other physical shortcomings. 

He reminded me that we will be able to overcome all things through Christ, but in His way and in His time.  Sometimes the hurt will not be taken away immediately, even though we are desperately ready for it to be gone.

The name of the address is "With Healing in His Wings," referring to the scripture in Malachi 4:2 which promises of the coming day of our Savior when "the Sun of righteousness (will) arise with healing in his wings."

He reminds us that though we desire to have all our pains and fears and hardships taken away immediately, we may have to wait upon the Lord, trusting that He knows best what we need to learn. 

But relief will come.  It really will. And perhaps when it does, we will have become stronger, more full of faith, more trusting in Him to do what remains undone, to overcome our enemies, and take us home to live with Him once again.

If we are patient, our adversity and our afflictions shall be but a small moment.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from (our) eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain..." (Revelation 21:4).

Oh, how thankful I am to know my Savior.  Oh, how thankful I am to trust in Him.  May we persevere together and look forward to that glorious day when He will come again with healing in his wings.