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Purpose In Suffering
Three years after Connor was healed from leukemia I sat at the hair salon getting my hair colored. I was introduced to the next client, a woman who had a sixteen year old daughter at Children's Hospital with leukemia. I immediately recognized this God appointment. This mother was suffering with the possibility of losing her daughter. Roxanne had the same adult form of leukemia that Connor had suffered. 

Kathy shared how Roxanne had lost all her long beautiful hair, that she spent her sixteenth birthday at the hospital, and that she had been in the hospital for months. Kathy said she attended a church, yet I discovered that the pastor and elders had not prayed over her daughter. I explained how the Bible instructs us to have our elders lay hands and pray for healing.

I boldly explained to Kathy how I surrendered Connor to God. I told her that we should pray for healing, but pray that not our will be done, but God's will be done. A prayer I had learned from Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane. I laid Connor at the foot of the cross to trust that God had a perfect plan. 

In the Bible I had studied the book of Genesis where Abraham was asked by God to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice, to surrender him on an alter. This test was to show Abraham how much he trusted God and how much he loved God. God already knew Abraham's heart. Through Abraham's
obedience to follow God and surrender his son to God's will, God then provided a ram to be sacrificed. His son was spared and Abraham is declared righteous in the Bible for trusting and obeying God.

As my hair stylist was finishing up, I shared the story of Christmas day when I received my special gift from God. I told her how Jesus spoke to me through his word, "You may go your son will live." I rejoiced that we left the hospital thirteen days later to spend the remaining one hundred days of isolation at home sooner than any child had left after a bone marrow transplant. I knew Jesus healed my son, along with using the doctors and modern medicine.

I professed, "Jesus healed two thousand years ago. He died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to conquer death." I said to Kathy, "Jesus is alive today and he can heal Roxanne." 

 Kathy never said much, she mostly listened. I sensed her despair as Roxanne's condition seemed hopeless. We said our good-byes and I tried to encourage her by telling her I would pray for her daughter.

After I left the hair salon, God put it on my heart to go to Children's Hospital to meet Roxanne. I felt awkward and uncomfortable, but I knew God was telling me to lay hands on Roxanne and pray. Out of obedience I went, fighting the urge to turn the car around as I drove down the highway. When I arrived I had the amazing privilege of meeting this precious young lady and another teenage girl who Roxanne had met in the hospital. I prayed for both of them.

A few months later I ran into Kathy at Costco. She told me that Roxanne had contracted a flesh eating bacteria. The doctors finally confessed there was nothing more they could do for her. Roxanne was not responding to treatment and she would eventually die. In the meantime, she suffered terribly. In Costco Kathy told me how she could hardly stand to see her daughter go through this kind of pain. She explained to me how she finally went to her knees and asked God to take her little girl to heaven. Out of love, unselfishly, Kathy surrendered her daughter knowing what was best for Roxanne.

"Miraculously," Kathy exclaimed, "God healed Roxanne. The doctors cannot explain how she got better." Beaming with joy, she said, "She's healed."

We rejoiced in the healing power of Jesus. We praised God, hugging one another in the middle of Costco. Kathy confessed that she never would have known how to surrender her daughter to God if she had not spoken to me about Connor.

Today I praise God that He allowed me to go through my suffering for a purpose. Because of Connor's leukemia and what I experienced, Roxanne may be alive today. Everything in our lives can glorify God if we choose to look at our circumstances from His perspective. God wants our surrendered hearts. More than anything He wants a relationship with us. He will allow anything to get our attention.

According to the Bible God did not make Connor sick, but God allowed it to happen. He is all powerful. I knew in the book of Job that Satan attacked God's faithful servant Job. Satan declared to God that Job was only a faithful follower because God had blessed Job with riches. God allowed Job to be tested by Satan and Job remained faithful. Eventually God restored twice as much to Job.   

During my suffering I wanted to remain faithful to God. I stayed focused on my relationship with Him to inherit His blessings. When we turn to God  through our pain and suffering  He is faithful to bring comfort, peace, and strength through the outcome of our circumstance. He alone is sufficient. We must surrender to His will, not our own self-serving agenda. 

What are you suffering from? Your past or present circumstances can be used to help others. You will feel blessed when you serve the living God. If you need healing read the steps to Healing Happens. 

God can use you if you are willing to be transparent and to reach out to serve others. Our purpose here on earth is to be in a relationship with God and to glorify Him through what we say and do. God will open up conversations to tell others about what God has done in your life. He wants to use you to bring people to the One who gives hope, Jesus Christ. 

If you feel led by God, pass this website along to someone you know who needs hope in their uncertain times. As you comfort people in their pain with the comfort you receive from God you will discover God's amazing joy, peace and purpose for your life as promised in 2Corin. 1:3-4. 

God will waste nothing. He redeems our brokenness. He will restore us and bring healing. God gives us purpose and meaning through the struggles we've endured. Consider what God wants to do in you and through you. Seek Him with all your heart and He will show you where to go out and be a blessing to someone who needs hope.