Vaccination Time

January 5, 2013

My brothers and sisters,  consider it nothing but joy  when you fall into all sorts of trials,   because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.   And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything. (James 1:2-4 NET)

"Oh, don't pray for patience for me!  Praying for patience will bring me more trials!"  That is our quip during morning prayer-time at my school because another translation of that phrase is - "knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. " (James 1:3 NKJV). We don't want others to pray for patience for us, because that will bring us all sorts of problems in our classrooms.  We are almost superstitious about it, not trusting our Loving Heavenly Father to give us the good and perfect gifts that will make us mature and complete.  We are like children dreading the vaccinations that will keep us free from deadly illnesses.

I remember the dread in my heart when Mama and Daddy would load my sister and me in the car to go to the health department to get shots in preparation for our missionary journey to the Philippines.  There was not a brave bone in my body as I anticipated the sting of the needle penetrating my flesh and the burn of the thick medicine as it oozed between my muscles.  It seemed all bad to me.  I could not understand why my parents would subject their dear children to such pain.  I cried.  i kicked and screamed.  I begged and pleaded to be excused from each round of shots, but they would not relent.  They understood the dangers that faced us without that preventative medicine, dangers that I could not even begin to comprehend.  They were taking their precious daughters to a third world country.  They had to prepare us so that we could endure in a place where we would wade in the waters of flooded canals, where we would eat unknown food, (Well, not much since I was a finicky eater.) and where we would breathe tainted air.  They had to prepare us, even though it caused us pain.  They were preventing suffering that could have been much worse.  Still I have no clue how bad it could have been, because they made me get those shots.

Our Heavenly Father knows, too, what I am going to have to face in a dangerous sin-filled world, and He knows how to equip me to endure.  The trials that He allows are probably preventative medicine to protect me from unknown dangers that I would face.  I still resist, cry, . . . okay, I even kick and scream sometimes, but He knows what is best for me, and in my nobler moments, I pray He will not relent.  After all, Scripture says,       "the person who endures to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:13 NET).  It causes me to wonder what horrors would have awaited me without the testing that He has allowed.  No, I don't want to know.  I will just choose to trust Him.

Now that is an interesting thought.  I almost missed it.  Endurance has something to do with being saved.  Saved from what?  Saved from worse temptations?  Saved from physical harm?  Saved from . . . hell?  Not that there is anything I can do to merit my salvation.  Even my enduring depends on The Lord Jesus, but there must be something crucial about it, for it to be mentioned.  This I know:  I need to endure because I follow an enduring Lord.  His faithfulness endures.  His righteousness endures, and repeatedly the Scriptures tell us that his love endures forever.

Give thanks to the  Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 107:1 NIV)

Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. (Psalm 111:3 NIV)

Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. (Psalm 119:90 NIV)

If I let the trials have their way in my life and I learn to endure, I will be in very good company, because I serve an excellent and enduring God.  It is worth the momentary discomfort to follow Him for Eternity.  I will try to be brave, but would it still be okay if I screw up my face and look the other way?