So today has not been so good. I am grateful that the healing process from the surgery is proceeding just as the doctor said it would. But as l talk with those who know about the interferon treatment, it seems that the month of January will be like four weeks with the “equivalent of swine flu.” It’s a little daunting. How do I prepare for that? What is that going to do to my precious family, to say nothing of my church family? And then there are the survival statistics. But I read :

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

That’s includes me, right? So why does it not seem like that? Guess I have to remember that God’s purpose and God’s good may not be the same as my choices and that God’s best in the short term can include my discomfort. In His big picture (that’s eternity I believe) it will be better than I can imagine.

In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul writes this:

He [Jesus] comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.

We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. 2 Cor. 1 4-6 MSG