What is Suffering?

We had a kinda hard thing happen in our family this week. My husband's contract job ended abruptly this week (they say they don't have the budget for his fee anymore - and will try to find someone to replace him at 40% of what my husband was making), and we are once again without an income. He is an ***** and jobs have been scarce these last few years - he has only worked about 13 out of the last 38 months.

It is tempting to be scared and anxious and upset. While I definitely will have more motivation than ever to seek God for what He wants for our lives, I am not tempted to call this suffering. I have seen some windows into suffering this week, and what we are experiencing is nothing. Nada.

For one, there is Sam and what his family is going through as they have found out that this 4 year old boy has leukemia. Another friend from theOoze found out that his 20 year old daughter might have cancer. There is Tim Samoff, a 32 year old young man who suffered a (non-fatal) heart attack a few days ago. DesertPastor has blogged about the pain of learning that a close friend had committed suicide, and of officiating at his funeral.

Today I learned that two days ago a family in our neighborhood lost their dad/husband. This man was only 42 years old, and had a son just out of 2nd grade, a daughter just out of kindergarten, and two 15 month old twins. The dad had taken vacation time to attend a basketball camp with his son this week, and suffered a fatal heart attack while playing basketball, dying instantly. His son thought that his dad had just tripped, and tried to get him to get up...

I can't even imagine the depth of suffering that this family is experiencing right now. If you think of it - please pray for them, especially for the mom and for this little boy!

What I do know is that I am blessed to be healthy and alive. That I am excited to have the next couple of weeks for our family to spend together during summer vacation. That every minute that we have to live together, to play together, even to worry a bit about where our next income will come from together - is precious time. Holy time. A gift that should not be taken lightly.

Dear Lord, please be with these families who are suffering. Please extend your mercy and your grace, your healing and your love to them. Please show me where I can extend a hand of help and love to those who are suffering - let me be light. Help me to keep my worries in perspective, and to trust You for what I cannot control.

Edited on 10/22/05: removed name of the specific career my husband has/had - hopefully this post will no longer attract the attention of spam commenting systems...