By ANNIE WESCHE
My dad was uncharacteristically quiet, and it worried me. He sat on a bench in his room staring down at his legs with a wearied, almost defeated expression on his face. We’d been dealing with large, open wounds from weeping edema (signs of his progressing congestive heart failure) that extended from both his ankles to his knees, and the healing process was painfully slow. For months, every day held a tedious and delicate routine of changing his wound dressings, changing sheets, and seeing little, if any, progress. We were starting to wonder if this battle would be won.
Only a couple years earlier we had walked through the loss of my dear mum to stage four brain cancer and our hearts were still aching with heavy grief. And as I sat on the floor beside my frail father — who had always appeared so strong in my eyes, whose usual buoyant spirit now seemed shrouded by weariness — waves of panic suddenly flooded my heart. Am I going to lose another beloved parent? Is this the beginning of the end with his health?
As anxieties began to rise within me, my heart ran to find refuge in prayer. As we sat there, both of us quiet and deep in thought, I silently cried out to Jesus. Lord, please, please minister to my dear father right now. Don’t let him lose hope! Please bring some sign of improvement in this wearying battle. You can heal him!
As I was desperately pleading with the Lord, my dad suddenly broke the silence with a contrasting calm and quiet voice, “You know, God’s Word tells us that Christ learned obedience through what He suffered,” he briefly paused looking down at his legs and then continued, “so I know that there is something I can learn through this suffering too.”
A holy calm seemed to suddenly blanket the room, wrapping us both in a renewed peace.
Dad hadn’t been quiet because he was despairing! He had been pondering what God had to say about his circumstances. In his weakness and suffering, he had turned his heart to hope in the Lord and to hope in His Word.
The moment was so precious that I wanted to cry. Holding back tears, I responded with a simple, “Yes, Daddy,” not wanting to reveal how anxious I had been and disrupt his sweet and peaceful reflection. I could see that while Dad’s body may have been weak and frail, his soul was triumphing in strength as he looked to the believer’s source of unfailing grace — Christ and the Word.
Speaking about Jesus, Hebrews 5:8 says, “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (NASB95). Matthew Henry’s commentary says this about the passage: “By these His sufferings, He learned obedience, though He was a Son … One would have thought this might have exempted Him from suffering, but it did not. Let none then who are the children of God by adoption expect an absolute freedom from suffering … Here He has left us an example, that we should learn by all our afflictions a humble obedience to the will of God … It is not sufficient that we have some doctrinal knowledge of Christ, or that we make a profession of faith in Him, but we must hearken to His Word, and obey Him.”
To what exactly was my dad learning obedience? Ultimately, to the will of his Heavenly Father. To the will of the One who is sovereign, loving, faithful, good, purposeful, and worthy. Dad was learning the obedience of walking by faith, of trusting the ways of God, of not being anxious for anything, of abiding in the love of Christ, and of giving thanks in all circumstances.
After eight long months, we saw victory in Dad’s legs fully healing up. And it has now been several years since, without any reoccurring issue. It was a wearying stretch, but it was a fruitful one for us both.
James 1:2–4 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (NASB95).
Trials will produce something in our life. They can produce bitterness, fear, resentment, anger, self-pity, self-protection, and doubt — or we can let them produce perseverance, patience, joy, faith, compassion, surrender, strength, and holiness. And what is produced will be determined by the disposition of our heart’s posture before the One who has sovereignly allowed the very circumstances we face. Nothing need be wasted when laid into the hands that have been pierced for us. May we be those who find tremendous gain for our souls in the suffering we endure as we hold to those loving hands. He is working something intentional, something good. If God purposed that suffering would work something gloriously good through His own perfect Son, Jesus, why would we not also gain from following His example and obediently walking through our trials with faith and joy?
And, dear reader, a sweet promise is given — we need not walk by faith and obedience in our own strength, striving, or perfection. The One who calls you and I to obedience, dwells within us and enables us by His own grace to walk in a manner worthy of Him. Lean on your Beloved in your present trial and look to His rich Word to undergird you with the strength He longs to give you.
And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
Strengthen me according to Your Word. Psalm 119:28
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24
This article was originally published in Issue 48.
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