Your Suffering is a Sermon
This weekend we had the honor of welcoming Nick Vujicic to our church. What an amazing time. Hundreds came to know Christ over the days of his visit. I look forward to sharing a few of his lines that personally touched my heart.
You know, for years we've said that our health is a means of praise and that our fitness can be a witness, and it's the truth. But if you look through the gospels, you won't find Jesus with the fit and fiddle. You won't find him around the strong, talking about able muscles, clear lungs or stable legs. And He certainly never wanted us to boast or show any of those things off. No. Where do we constantly find our Savior? With the sick. The ill. The needy, hurting, ailing, failing, and wailing. The "fitness is my witness" cliché? Sure. But like Max Lucado says, "It's your suffering that's a sermon."
Over the next few days, we'll look back at a few times the Lord allowed me to confess it. And at the same time, I'll ask you to share your life, your pain, your strain and the stories of those you love. Reminds me that when Nick was young he used to pray for a miracle. He used to say, "God, imagine what I could do with just one arm."
Friends, our God is at much at work during our illness as He is during our mountain-top moments. How we handle our pain-free abilities and gifts of good health can serve a mighty purpose - we can't downplay it - but where we go in times of pain and sickness says more to others about the God we serve than all of that combined.
- Jimmy Peña
