The Bible tells us it is through faith and patience that we inherit God’s promises.

“We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” – Hebrews 6:12

My faith and patience are both being severely tested at this time. I wrote earlier (see “Giving Thanks Always for All Things”) about the recent changes in my health, but I have learned to live with these without undue concern. However, I am experiencing more difficulty in dealing with my wife Mary’s health. Although she was diagnosed with an incurable autoimmune liver disease in 1990 and told she would soon need a liver transplant in order to survive, she has lived for over 26 years without a transplant and without experiencing the rate of health decline that the doctors expected. Within the last year, though, she began to exhibit some of the symptoms that would indicate that the liver failure was progressing. During that time she also fell several times, with the most recent (shortly after Thanksgiving last year) resulting in a stress fracture of one of her vertebrae. This put her in the hospital for several days followed by several weeks in rehab to promote healing of her back and to counter the effects of the progression of the liver disease. This was a devastating blow to her, having previously suffered a fractured pelvis and injured shoulder in a January 2013 fall that had put her in the hospital and then in rehab for over a month. Although she had fully recovered from that fall, this was deja vu with a sense of “here we go again.” On top of that, her doctor now told her the liver disease had “entered another stage” and that she should expect a continuing downward spiral in her health and that a liver transplant was unlikely due to her age and overall health. A rather grim prognosis.

I have felt for a long time, however, that God has been telling me our mission on earth is not yet complete and he still has work for both of us, work requiring both of us to be healthy. Along with this comes a promise that God is healing Mary in ways that go beyond what the doctors can do. I am learning that faith and patience are needed in order to receive these promises. The hardest part for me is patience. The prayers of many have gone up on our behalf, and the doctor has been surprised that Mary shows signs of improvement when he expected further decline. Nevertheless, this has been an extremely slow, though steady, process. Why can’t God speed it up? The answer seems to be that this is a time of learning to wait on God, to trust that he is using this time to prepare us for the work he has for us, work that will require both faith and patience. He has told me the things I perceive as obstacles and hindrances to our progress will actually become stepping stones to help us on our way.

Here we are in mid-March 2017 and Mary’s healing is not yet complete. Once I identify a problem I want to get it resolved right away. This time, though, it is not something I can control. God has told me to let go of it and let him finish what he has started. It is hard for me to wait on him, but I am learning.