Trouble

I’ve been in bed a lot lately so last week I watched the entire Anne of Green Gables series. After successfully persuading a grouchy old lady to her point of view, said old lady tells Anne:

Yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. Job 5:7

I just love that so much because we do have a lot of trouble in this life don’t we? And, if you’re anything like me, most of it we cause ourselves! Yet I love that as we have trouble we can always rely on the Lord. He doesn’t always (almost never??) take our troubles away. Rather, at least for me, he strengthens us to move through them.

I got really sick last week, just five days after my gallbladder surgery. My mother and father didn’t know what to do for me. At 3am Wednesday morning I asked for a priesthood blessing. I was so miserable; I wanted to be healed so bad. But instead of healing, I was blessed with strength. I was hospitalized Wednesday afternoon, and by Thursday afternoon I was ready to rip out the IV and stagger home (and by stagger home I mean: lay in the back seat while Mom drove us home). I only just started eating solids again a few days ago (I ate an entire banana on Sunday!), so healing has been slow. But through it all I was never scared or worried: I mean, your parents being stumped on what to do is usually a scary thing! But I knew I was in the Lords hands, and he was strengthening me. While I was in the hospital, to help myself deal with the pain and nausea I kept counting backwards in my head from ten. In my favorite book series, The Amber Chronicles, Corwin says, “The hardest thing about time is doing it.” Yet the Lord reassured me through it all that I was going to get better, and to just take it slow. And here I am, eating bananas, cereal, and real chicken broth! 🙂

It gives me comfort to know that God knew we’d have trouble and sorrow in this life, but that he also provided healthy ways for us to deal with it all. Later on in Job, Job says that though his friends scorn him (and all the other stuff he had happen to him!), “but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.” (Job 16:20) God always hears us and knows our needs, and if we endure to the end, in the end He shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. (Rev 7:17)