Severe Mercies

The world has become very small because of the Internet, and through blogging we hear about people of whom we would otherwise have never know. Word travels fast in the blogging world and when a tragedy takes place in a family, hundreds of people will offer prayers and condolences and many link to the page making it very easy to find.

I have read of little children battling dreadful illnesses, of mothers fighting cancer, and even women dying in childbirth. It’s so easy to get caught up in the lives of these families, worrying about them and feeling sorry for them instead of focusing on what God has in store for me today. But I just read a very encouraging post addressing that very temptation. The author reminded me that, though I feel concerned for the family that I read about, I am not going through their trials. I am not living in the grace of their situation. God is with them, giving them grace to get through it, not me. Filling my mind with useless worries and thoughts is really just self-centeredness. I should be praying that God would give them strength and be near them rather than imagining what it would be like if something like that happened to me.

The other temptation is to worry that troubles such as theirs will befall me. It’s true, they might, but if such a “severe mercy” is God’s will for my life, then He will provide me with the grace to make it through. It’s futile to waste precious time now worrying about potential troubles. Yes, there is sickness and death in this world, and there are many bloggers going through trials. God may require suffering like that of me someday, but He hasn’t yet. For that I should be thankful and in the meantime, I need to focus on learning the lessons He’s giving me now and enjoy even more fully the bountiful blessings with which He’s filled my life. If such a time of trial comes for me, these are the days that I will have to look back on and I want them to be sweet memories.

It all comes down to that “joy in the journey” stuff: Live life to the fullest now because the past is gone forever and who knows what the future might hold.

You can read the full post that I found so encouraging here. It’s quite a story!

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