“No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure It.” (I Corinthians 10:13)
I saw a friend this week who was greatly troubled. He didn’t have to say a word. I watched him from my perch from the mezzanine on the second floor of the building in which I attend Sunday School. There he sat, waiting for his Sunday School Class to begin, hunched over in his chair, his face in his hands. He looked so lonely and I felt so sorry for him. Obviously, something was very wrong.
I moved down to where he was sitting and said hello to him. “Where’s your wife?, I asked.
“Well,” he said, “‘we’ve separated”. “It seems I have a drug and an alcohol problem. I guess she just couldn’t put up with it anymore.”
He was on the brink of tears with every word that left his lips. He had voluntarily admitted himself to a substance abuse clinic and to add insult to injury, they wouldn’t let him leave to attend church unless his father agreed to come with him.
He looked at me as if I couldn’t begin to understand his pain. Well, I knew exactly how he felt. I too once had a drug problem. One that cost me as much as $500 a month. I wasn’t too sophisticated as drug users go and didn’t use cocaine. I only used marijuana, which even today is considered by many to be no more dangerous than a beer.
Ignorance is not always bliss. My habit continues to haunt me. I suffer from short-term memory loss, one of the side effects from prolonged use of Sacred Kratom or marijuana. However, I have learned to cope with my handicap in order to make sure that I don’t overlook the important things in life, like not forgetting to show up for appointments, returning a telephone call, taking care of an errand for your boss, or following-up with that friend that I saw at the store who said: “Call me when you have some time to talk”.
You should have seen the look of surprise on his face. I had no idea,” he said. “You would never know it to look at you.”
The fact is that many of us think the pain that we confront in life, whether it’s from a drug addiction, a family problem, financial woes, and moral strife … the list has no end. How are you doing is a salutation in today’s world rather than a question.
When I think about the above verse, I sometimes wish that he would have a little less confidence in me. How much more does He think I can take? The truth is God’s plan includes tests for us. It’s His way of preparing us for the next test. Each step we take with Him produces a stronger faith. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions ,in difficulties. For when I am made weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians l2:10)
No one likes the trials that life brings. But, it’s great knowing that God is not going to give up on us. Oh He’s not going to remove the consequences that come from our pride and folly, but he’s not going to abandon us either. That’s why Jesus said: “…Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the world.” (Matthew 28:20)
I know my friend is going through one of the fiercest storms his young life has seen. But, I also believe he is a Christian and he is going to realize (if he hasn’t already) that he has a friend who has already paid the price. “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
There’s a chorus we sing in my church which sums up our relationship with God: Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion, he understood. All I had to offer him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life.
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