Is there a bittersweet side to suffering?

Listen as we hear a perspective on suffering, first from author and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada, founder of the ministry and radio program called Joni and Friends, and second from conference speaker, pastor’s wife, and author Esther Lovejoy.

In 1967, when Joni was 17, she had a diving accident and suffered paralysis. She’s lived the last several decades in a wheelchair and initially struggled to understand why God would allow this in her life. “If you had told me that God was going to use my life, my wheelchair to be a platform for promoting the gospel among people with disabilities, no way – it was so out of the question.” If an angel had appeared at her bedside and shown her how God would use her disability, Joni says she’s not sure it would have comforted her at the time.  “Because pain is pain is pain when you’re experiencing loss. When you are dealing with the grief of shattered hopes and dreams… it takes time. But Ecclesiastes says that God makes all things beautiful in its time.”

Esther Lovejoy is well acquainted with pain and beauty. Esther had a rich full life until she lost her marriage of 30 years, and her business and home, and was thrown into the midst of suffering. Esther’s story also continues through her daughter who was born with a bone abnormality which would eventually need a leg brace and corrective procedures. The doctor advised Esther and her husband to gently turn their newborn daughter’s leg to reposition the bone, day by day. Esther shares her own tears in that process, knowing that she was hurting her newborn child but knowing that it was ultimately for her good. Out of these deep hurts, Esther has seen and experienced the grace of God and shares  insights from her book,  The Sweet Side of Suffering: Recognizing God’s Best When Facing Life’s Worst.

The same is true for us. For every season of pain we face, God promises to “bring us the treasures of darkness” (Isaiah 45). We are not to surrender to the evil being done to us, or the sickness in our body, but to the purpose behind the suffering – to draw us to God. Esther points to the life of King David as an example. He was anointed as king by the prophet Samuel but spent years on the run as King Saul sought to kill him. David submitted to God’s plan, waited on His Lord and eventually rose to the throne, in God’s beautiful timing.

This program has been pre-recorded.

The sweet side of suffering

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