Learning Contentment

Last night at dialysis, we used my fistula for the first time. I’d like to be able to say that it was great … but really it just adds another level of discomfort. First, they have to insert two needles into my arm, connected to tubes that run into the machine. They tape it up carefully so the needles don’t move … and then I can’t move the arm during the treatment (3 ½ hours!) So I’m learning to feed myself dinner with one hand. Then, when the treatment time is over and they take the needles out, I have to press really hard with a piece of gauze on the spot or I’ll bleed all over everything. After the bleeding has pretty well stopped, the arm is thoroughly bandaged. I have to wear the bandages all night to make sure the bleeding doesn’t start up again. And this morning when I took off the tape and gauze so I could bathe, one spot did bleed a little, but I managed to stop it. So … three times a week of this?

Oh Lord, help me endure.

Other people have been thinking about enduring and contentment in all circumstances. Jordon Cooper, whose battle with diabetic neuropathy you know, linked to a post by Mark Palmer, who is fighting cancer. I was touched by Mark’s post, so here is an excerpt:

It's not about me and how I fight this disease or how our little family walks through it. The bigger picture is the battle against sickness and death that we all face because we live in a broken world. But it's even more about the Kingdom that has broken in and offers us a chance at relief from that disease. It offers health and victory where before there was none. There is hope in the midst of hopelessness. Death is not where we lose; the onset of hopelessness is the great defeater.

And over at Shizuka Blog, Jared shares an excerpt from “Pilgrim’s Progress:”

"He that is down needs fear no fall, he that is low no pride:
He that is humble ever shall have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have, little be it or much:
And, Lord, contentment still I crave, because thou savest such.
Fullness to such a burden is that go on pilgrimage:
Here little, and hereafter bliss, is best from age to age."

Comments

[Jared]

I appreciate the link.

Thanks for this post, LeeAnn. Like a splash of cold water in the face, it gives me some perspective today.

[Linea]

LeeAnn,
That qoute on Jordon's blog meant a lot to me too. Physical pain is not the only suffering that can provoke hopelessness and these days it is good to be reminded that God is there through all of life providing strength to endure.