“No chastening for the moment seems enjoyable, but painful. But afterwards, to those who have been trained by it,  it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11).

In the middle of the pain, no one enjoys the experience. Only in looking back–at some distant day–do you see how God used it. You lost a job, experienced the death of a loved one, went bankrupt, were falsely accused, had a near-death illness, and now at a great distance, you see what the Heavenly Father did with this in your life.  You are not the same person you were previously.

Life is understood only in looking backward, the saying goes. But it must be lived going forward.

It doesn’t work that way for everyone, Hebrews 12:11 is implying. For some, the trials are fatal.  It just depends.  To those who have been trained by it surely means “the people who have learned to give their woes to the Lord for His purposes.”

We can wallow in our defeat, be chained in despair by our sorrows and troubles, or we can rise above them by putting our trust in the Savior and finding His purposes.

In her book Character, Gail Sheehan tells of the lengthy rehabilitation Senator Bob Dole endured after his World War II injuries. German machine gunfire had hit him in the upper back and right arm. Medics gave him the largest possible dose of morphine, then wrote “M” (for morphine) on his forehead with his own blood, so no one who found him would give him a second, fatal dose.   Dole went through multiple surgeries and experienced recurring blood clots, life-threatening infections, and long periods of recuperation and therapy.

An interviewer once asked Senator Dole, “How did this delay your career plans?”

He answered, “Before my injury, I didn’t have any career plans.  I had been a C student in high school, and not motivated.  The truth is this injury is what gave me my career.”

The injury, he added, “inspired me to focus on what I had left and what I could do with it.”

We may conclude that the injury accomplished several things in the life of this good man:

–it stopped him in his tracks and gave him massive amounts of quiet time to rest and recuperate.

–it gave him time to think–to assess his life, his direction, and his goals.

–it gave him the necessity to make different plans for the future.

–it forced him to reassess everything about his life.

Anything that does that is not all bad.

The Psalmist said, It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn thy statutes (Psalm 119:71).

Good that you were afflicted?

It didn’t feel good, that’s for sure.  And in the middle of the suffering, the last thing you wanted to hear was “this is going to work out fine” and “some day you’ll look back at this and give thanks.”

Even if it was true.

I have said to friends who had suddenly found themselves unemployed.  “This is really tough, I know.  But I’m going to make a prediction.  In time you will look back on this as the best thing that ever happened to you.”

I have been there and done that.

A church that was completely erased from the map by a hurricane had to start from scratch in relocating and rebuilding.  These days, they minister from an all-new campus located near the high school and visible to everyone.  The pastor told me, “I don’t say this publicly, but that hurricane was the best thing that ever happened to our church.”

Many a congregation has a similar testimony.

No wonder the Apostle Paul said to young Timothy, Join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God (2 Timothy 1:8).  Think of that: suffering for the gospel feels like weakness, right?  But do so, Paul says, according to the power of God.

Wow.  That should give you something to think about the rest of the day!

A friend was abruptly terminated from the church he had loved and pastored for years. Nothing about that seemed fair or just.  He had to struggle with his thoughts.  I said to him, “My brother, I pray that the day will come when you and your wife look back on this as the greatest thing that ever happened to you.” I’ve seen it happen.

Only God could work that kind of divine alchemy.

Only our Heavenly Father can turn the scars into stars.

But for that to happen, we have to give the pain to Him and then wait upon Him.  Some nights we just have to get through and there is no going around them.

His schedule is not ours.  His timing is perfect.  However, the waiting can be brutal.

Dale Oldham, celebrated pastor and radio preacher for the Church of God in the mid-20th century, used to tell how he and his wife Polly were struggling in their first pastorate.  They were overjoyed when they learned they would become parents.  After months of excitement and planning, the day arrived. When the child was stillborn, they were devastated.  Polly turned her face to the wall and refused to be comforted.

It was a dark time in their lives.

“Lord,” the young pastor grieved in prayer, “it’s so difficult.  We have worked for you so faithfully, we serve this church for starvation wages, and we were so excited to be having a baby. And now this.  Lord, it does seem you could have let us keep our baby.”

In time, he was able to pray, “But Father, I know You.  I know You could never do a mean or hurtful thing.  So I’m going to give this to You.  We will trust You to use this for Your glory.”

Only then was Dale able to go to Polly and comfort her.

“I cannot tell you,” he would say to his hearers, “how many times over the years I have ridden in the funeral procession with a young family as they laid their baby to rest. I was able to say to them, ‘My friends, give it up to the Savior.  Trust Him even when you don’t know why.  Just trust Him.’”

An old gospel song, which I learned a half century ago and have not heard since, puts it this way:

I do not know O Lord, why it should be Thy will, for me to walk this valley road so filled with pain;

I do not know O Lord, why it should be Thy will, for me to suffer loss when I had prayed for gain;

But I do know Thou wilt not let me go; Thy way is always best, no matter what the test;

And I do know if I’ll but trust in Thee all the darkness soon will pass and I shall see.

And I think of another song that has this line: Be faithful weary pilgrim, the morning I can see.  Just lift your cross and follow, follow me.

I am well-aware that the weak-minded and carnal cannot handle this.  The worldly-mind demands that everything be easy, the answers simple, the payoff immediate.  But the God we serve does not settle all His accounts by sundown.  He who dwells in eternity takes His own good time.  That can be difficult for us, but it’s the only way.

We walk by faith.  That is the consistent message of Scripture from the first to the last.  The first?  Look at Genesis 15:6 (quoted in Romans 4:3,9,22, in Galatians 3:6 and James 2:23).  The last? Look at Revelation 2:10. And in between, camp out in the epistles of Romans and Galatians, among other places.  “We walk by faith, and not by sight,” says 2 Corinthians 5:7.