PAIN – THE GREAT TEACHER

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28 NIV)

Luci Shaw, my dear friend, mentor, and favorite poet, was widowed in midlife. When her husband Harold was diagnosed with cancer, Luci made a thoughtful vow to God. She said, “Lord, I promise never to give up on You, never to desert the faith.” Luci said that that promise, “like a marriage vow that sometimes staples a faltering relationship,” held her during the seven years of Harold’s illness, and finally, in his death (from “God in the Dark”). I think Luci exemplifies how a woman of wisdom responds to suffering. Her pain, which she did not deny, was immense. She told me that being a widow was “radical surgery – like being cut in half.” But she also resolved to trust God and to learn from her suffering. In an article in "Christian Living” (June, 1986), Luci said, “I’m learning to welcome pain, and not to dodge it. It’s one of the most valuable lessons. Pain has a refining work to do in us, if we welcome it. It teaches us what is temporal, what is superficial, and what is abiding and deep. I’m trying to let pain do its work in me.” 

-- Dee Brestin in “A Woman of Insight”

#5923