Precious Suffering

As my mind has been recounting the events of the past few weeks, I remembered the words to a very old song. I can't remember the name of the singer; he wasn't very popular. I think the name of the song was "Precious Suffering," and I'm going to type out the words to the best of my very foggy memory.

V1.
If the storm makes me more like Him,
If the night keeps His light from growing dim,
I won't fear though my tears fall like rain.
Let the storms come, let the night fall, let the tears rain.

Chorus1:
Oh, precious suffering, you're an old friend of mine.
We share a love so bittersweet for all the work you've done in me.
Let the One who suffered most be glorified.
Precious suffering, you're a dear old friend of mine.

V2.
Time will come when we say goodbye
When the Father's will in me is satisfied.
It may sound strange, but I'll be sad to see you go.
You've taught me more love, brought me more joy, shown me Jesus.

Chorus2:
Oh, precious suffering, you're an old friend of mine.
Without you, would I know all the blessings you have shown,
And would the gold in me ever be refined.
Precious suffering...

Bridge:
Oh to know the power of His resurrection,
That His all-sufficient grace is greater still.

That's all I can remember, but that's where I feel I am. I feel like every time I turn around, something else is slamming me against a wall. Since the week before Thanksgiving, both of the kids have been sick with RSV at one time or another, Jule has had a double ear infection followed by a single ear infection, Jule has been in the hospital with severe croup after being transported by an ambulance, I ended up with a sore throat and 102 fever while on the way home from the hospital, our trip to Indiana had to be stopped after making it as far as Asheville, and we spent Christmas with a screaming baby with neither one of our families around. I'm so frustrated...I feel so robbed. I feel robbed of the Christmas I had been so excited for, I feel robbed of having a baby that I can enjoy through the infant months, and I feel robbed of having a normal "mommy" life. There is a word for all this...suffering. Yet still, as oppressed as I feel, I have not endured anywhere near the suffering that Jesus did.

I Peter 4:12-13 says, "Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."

Romans 8:18 says, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

I don't understand why this all has to be so hard and overwhelming, but I do feel that I need to refocus my mind not on what is seen but on what is unseen. What is unseen is the eternal fruit of suffering.

2 Corinthians 4:15-18 says, "For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

I have to believe that things won't always be this difficult; otherwise, I wouldn't survive. I also have to believe that the suffering will pave the way for the future, that going through these times will make me stronger, and that the labor for my children will benefit their eternal beings. After all, my number one goal is that they know God. The crying, sickness and weariness won't mean a thing in a place where none of the aforementioned items exist. So, I must reconnect with Philippians 3:13-14 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

Now, if I could only catch my breath for just a little bit....