Day Plus 4-It Is Well

Reflecting on that fact that we have been living in the Palo Alto area for 2 weeks now, in the hospital for 13 days. While I find myself complaining at times about being trapped in the hospital, eating the same food, constantly fighting nausea, being awakened in the middle of the night by nurses, I'm brought back to the fact that God, in His absolute sovereignty, has allowed me to be in this position, and to that, rather than saying woe is me, I can say that it is well with my soul. Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, said, “It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.”

It's easy when things are going well, to be thankful to God when you have good health, a stable job, and good relationships. Or do we even think about God at all when all is well? Spurgeon also said, “I am afraid that all the grace that I have got of my comfortable and easy times and happy hours, might almost lie on a penny. But the good that I have received from my sorrows, and pains, and griefs, is altogether incalculable … Affliction is the best bit of furniture in my house. It is the best book in a minister’s library.”

Like Spurgeon, I need to continually remind myself that one reason God brought trials was to give me more grace — more experienced nearness to Christ.  Spurgeon said trials brought him far more grace than ease and comfort did (Psa 119:67; Rom 5:3-5; 2Co 12:9-10; Heb 12:10; James 1:2-4; 1Pe 1:6-7). As I continue these 2 more weeks in the hospital, and 2 more months living in the area until mid-October, and 1 year to fully recover, my desire is to be continually thrown against the Rock which my trials beat and batter me against. And to that I can echo the words of the great hymn writer Horatio Spafford:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well with my soul