Keep Serving While You Suffer

It was a really, really bad day for Theodore Roosevelt.  On Valentines Day, 1884, his wife and his mother died on the same day.  His wife died giving birth to their first child, Alice.  In his diary that day he wrote, "The light has gone out of my life."  He then decided to run away.  He left his newborn daughter with his sister, and he rode off to the badlands of the Dakotas, breaking horses, rounding up and branding cattle, and hunting down cattle thieves (Source:  Robert Jeffress).  What a tragedy!  When life got tough the man abandoned his responsibilities. 

That's what a lot of people do when they suffer.  They run away.  They drop their responsibilities and flea.  They seek to escape.  They quit their job.  They leave their spouse.  They leave their children.  They drop out of church.  They quit volunteering.  They stop loving.  They stop serving.  They stop giving.  They stop sharing.  They stop showing up.  They stop exercising.  They stop eating right.  They stop having a quiet time.  They give up and run away.  Sometimes physically.  Sometimes just emotionally and spiritually.  

Suffering is hard.  But don't run away.  Your trials are not an accident.  God knows exactly what He is doing.  This is all part of His plan.  And if you cling to Him and carry on with the responsibilities that He has given you, then He will use this trial for your good and His glory.  And in the end you will be able to look back and see that your trial was a gift, and you are better off because of it.  But the only way that's possible is if you keep serving while you suffer.  Don't run away.  Don't stop.  Don't give up.  Keep on.

(Sources:  Robert Jeffress sermon, "Learn How to Handle Bad Days.")

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