I waited patiently for the LORD. . . .He lifted me out of the pit of destruction. . . .He stood me on a rock and made my feet steady.
Psalm 40:1, 2, NCV
In 2019, I had my sixth knee surgery and first back surgery as a result of problems caused during physical therapy after my knee surgery. I was home for five months on medical leave.
If you know anything about me, you know that being inactive is not one of my strengths. I love the work God has called me to do. I am passionate about women’s ministries. I love to encourage my sisters through God’s Word, empower them through training, listen to their challenges, and much more. But now, for five months, I was unable to travel, unable to go to work, and even though I tried to do some work on my laptop, pain medication had my mind too fuzzy to concentrate and focus. So what was I to do?
I had been home for a few months each time I had had other knee replacements. But five months was more than I could bear. After month three, I began to get frustrated and felt my life had no purpose. I could not stand, walk, or sit for more than a few minutes at a time. That’s when God and I began to have long conversations—I did a lot of talking. “Why, Lord, would you allow this back injury and surgery when my knee recovery was going so well?” God knew my heart. He knew I only wanted to serve Him and my sisters around the world. “So why, Lord?”
One day, as I lay in bed, I could see in my mind a long straight line that was my life. It began at my birth, but I could not see where it ended. Along that line were marked out the major trials in my life. Then I saw my current trial. The time for these trials, though seeming long at the time, were but short periods in my life’s timeline. Suddenly I realized that seeing my trials one at a time while going through them made them seem enormous and lengthy.
Sometimes we look too long at our trials. We need to step back and focus on the big picture and see what God has done in our lives because of each trial. Are we the same after a trial as we were before it? Each trial can strengthen us and draw us closer to God if we allow it to.
I pray we allow God to work His perfect will in our lives each day.
Heather-Dawn Small
Color My World With Love: ©2021 Pacific Press Publishing Association