Weakness & Strength

    What an invitation, to contemplate my weakness and God’s power displayed through me.  Paul poses the question, “Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?”  The example of strength through weakness displays the greatest example of the wisdom of this world becoming foolishness to me.  We usually look to the perfect American family named the Jones for an example of God’s blessing.  This family has no material want, with love and warmth and no sense of loss this family lives out their life.  Blessed?  Maybe.

My greatest fear has been to have a miscarriage or the loss of a child.  Even when someone is sharing, so and so has had a miscarriage or lost a child, a pain in the pit of my stomach begins to ache so horribly, I shiver.  My heart no longer wants to listen.  How could anyone walk down this dark road, and come out the other side?  How could she ever be the same again?

A few weeks ago God invited me to experience a new level of intimacy with Him that can only be attained through sorrow.  Even now I cry, one tear for my loss and another for my joy in the Lord.  As I lay on that table looking up at this perfectly formed baby, I wondered how this could be happening.  The whole situation seemed like a nightmare that I might wake from in a few hours.  Emotionally, I went to pieces as the nurse said, “I’m sorry.  There is no heartbeat.”  The doctor came in; I tried to control my sobbing long enough to look at him.  I tried to listen, but my mind was unable.  I am glad that Jon was with me to hear.  My first experience with God’s strength was when I realized that I had to walk past a packed waiting room full of pregnant women.  With God, I was able to compose myself enough to walk past them without scaring them with the thought that they were next. 

In the days to come, I walked down a very lonely road with room for only one.  Jon held my hand, many sent cards with empathy from words of their road, but only I could go through with it.  Or so I thought, for Jesus whispered to me, “I am here.”  From the beginning He beckoned me to rest in Him.  Yes, rest!  I asked Him, “When people ask me, how can you look on this with joy and peace, and did you say peace?  What answer do I give them?”  He responded, “Faith.”

Bad things happen to sinners and saints alike.  Some believe that because we are Christians, some how we have been inoculated from all the things that everyone else has to experience.  The truth is that we still: get sick with various illnesses, lose our jobs, and are tempted to sin.  God is clear in His Word that He has a purpose in every trial, temptation, or illness.  It is only what these times of weakness produces in us that is different.  Where bitterness, hatred, and depression rein in some, in me God has produced faithfulness, joy, peace, and love.  We rejoice because we have been made more valuable because the genuineness of our faith has been tested, and the result is that praise, glory and honor has been brought to the One who redeemed us through His own suffering.

I rejoice because through my weakness my Jesus has been lifted up and made to be center stage in my life.  He has made me a witness to His power and strength.  The Gospel has never been more clear to me, and I my desire to tell others of this great hope that has come to me through faith in Jesus Christ has never been greater.

Note: The above was written by Matthea Glass.  She and her husband Jon were part of the Ethiopia Team that travelled with Hillions to the southern rural area called Burji. 

For an awesome testimony, listen to   http://connectwithgod.wordpress.com/2010/08/24/mattheas-testimony/